DDR + Guitar Hero 3 = No time to blog :)

DDR Hottest Party is so hard to find as any Wii owner knows.. but, when I found it, it became a Christmas present to myself. And I've played it every day since I got it. I think I'm addicted. I so love that game. The boy also found a game that he loves, and that would be Guitar Hero 3. His nephew got it for Christmas and he tried playing it - and loved it. GH3 also happens to be another one of those "sold out everywhere for the Wii" games so I was a little skeptical about being able to find this one too. I think we lucked out though. Target had literally just gotten them in stock right across from where we work when we called. I was even there earlier in the day and they were out. Nonetheless, finding that out, we headed over and got it. The game is only a few days old and he has almost beaten it already!

Christmas on the way!

A week from yesterday and it's here. This year seemed to have just flown by! The good news is that I think I'm just about finished with my Christmas shopping. I went way over budget on my brother and sister, but that's pretty typical of me. Unfortunately. I just see so many things I know they would like and think "just this one last thing..." Which also reminds me that I made the nice mistake of telling my mom that I don't want any stuffed animals or any junk for Christmas. She's called John and mentioned to him that I said that, so I know she's ticked off about it. I probably should have worded it differently because I'm sure she ran to my sister and told her that I called all the gifts she ever picked out for me as "junk". You don't tell that to a 16 yr old girl, and especially not out of context like I'm sure she did. I just can't win. I probably should have just taken the stuffed animals and keychains..

The chowder was sort of a disaster at first.. lol. I had never made it before, so the first day I tried it out, I ended up making 3 different batches. The kitties loved me that day. The next day I decided to give it another go and ended up with something I felt was good enough to let John try out. He seemed to really like it, and I was quite proud myself, having never made it before. I still have some tweaking to do, but I wouldn't be ashamed of making it for, say, a party I'm going to the way I have it now.

Pens and Chowder

Well the Pens won the game we went to see. It was actually a really great game to watch. Especially after looking at the rankings and seeing that the Pens didn't seem to have a snowball's chance of winning it. But they did :) ..and the streak has kept up too - they've been playing rather well! I'm quite impressed! However, Fleury is hurt, which is no good. Poor dude. It almost seems like he'll never get to regain his confidence with how much Therrien was swapping him in and out, and now this.

Yesterday the boy and I went to the Hartwood Acres Festival of Lights. It was really cool. Over 3 miles of, well, Christmas lights! I wished I had brought a camera, but the cell phone had to suffice so although I have a bunch of pictures, they aren't the best quality in the entire world. We also stopped afterwards at a little restaurant called the Hardwood Cafe and had some of their "famous" clam chowder. John loves the stuff, and I was thinking, I have Thursday off so I'm going to try a little experiment. I'm going to attempt to mimic their chowder, although John claims that it's been tried by many and failed by all. I have a few ideas, but I'll have to do a little grocery shopping and then we'll see!

Call of Duty 4

So the boy and I were out for black Friday, and I spotted COD 4 for the DS. Despite the fact that I was out Christmas shopping, I couldn't resist. And I love it. The controls take a bit getting used to (although the Lite seems like it'd handle a bit easier), but after you do it's a very fun game. I didn't think the DS was going to release any FPS's at all, so that may be some of my excitement, but I've played it every day since I got it and really enjoy it.

Tomorrow night the Pens play the Dallas Stars and I'll be going to the game! I didn't think I'd make it to any Pens games this season simply because they had gone from the verge of being sold to Kansas City - to - impossible to get tickets unless your a season ticket holder! But sure enough, John got us a pair! We haven't been to a game yet that they've lost either so.. *keeping fingers crossed*

Light Up Night

..is rather overrated. Unless you're a 5 year old, that is. Last Friday was Light Up Night and John and I decided to go. We both took the day off work together so we headed down in time for things to start. I've never been to it, but I did expect more considering all of the hype it gets. It was neat to see the "fireworks" they did and the tree light up, but it just didn't live up to the expectations. One interesting thing though: when we were walking there, there was a lady standing in front of one of the finer restaurants roasting chestnuts (on an open fire :P). We stopped and got some, because neither of us had never had them before. They were quite good! It was random but cool. Then at the end of the night (after the letdown), John took me to a steak house (I had been saying how I was in the mood for steak.) That made the whole venture much nicer :) My steak was cooked perfectly too.

Now for my PSP. I was thinking about selling it. As far as my handheld systems is concerned, I rarely put down my DS. My PSP just isn't getting the same love. However, last night when I came up with that (potential) idea of selling it, I figured I should play a few games on it before I finally part with it, and I ended up playing it the whole night and I think I'm gonna go back to Midnight Club 3 for a bit later tonight. So, I'm not sure what to do :-/

Pumpkins!

We carved these just before Halloween, but just now got the pictures of them. Unless you have no idea who I am, you know which one is mine :)



Speaking of delayed Halloween stuff, we also just went to a haunted house this past weekend. I almost thought it wasn't going to happen since we've been so busy, but there was one still open in Prospect - and for as lame as I thought it would be, I was rather impressed! Haunted hay ride (not as lame as the majority of them), haunted house, and haunted corn maze all in one. I even got scared a few times :)

Now that Halloween is out of the way, I can not believe how many stores have Christmas stuff out. It used to seem that Thanksgiving day was the threshold for the Christmas outburst, but now stores aren't even waiting for Turkey day to get here. It's like every year it's a race to see who can put out the Christmas stuff first. I think it's getting to be a bit ridiculous.

C# - weird

Things have been a little hectic lately, as I was recently told (not asked) that I will now be put on a project at work, developing in C#. I'm a Java programmer. So I'm trying to read up on this language and it just seems strange. It's like Javasoft or something. Delegates are weird. I can't think of a single instance I'd use them when not dealing with events. The fact that C# still has virtual functions is one thing that says to me that the language isn't as good as Java. (For those who are completely lost, Java's functions are [technically, C++ speaking] all implicitly virtual.) But alas I'm supposed to help make up for the 2800 hours they overestimated this project for, because they can't change the release date (for once). I just love my company.

Anywho, the Pens are playing tonight, and I'll be headed to Rudy's in a bit to have a beer, chill, & watch the game. Although I don't know of anyone around here close who likes the Pens, so I think I'll be going just myself. I put something on facebook about it, and Andrew (dancing buddy) replied but I think he lives far, far away. I need to recruit a Pens fan group around here or something :)

Halo for the DS

No, seriously. It was made and demoed, but unfortunately it will never reach the stores (or the majority of living things). Matt Casamassina from IGN proved that it was a real game. What I am trying to figure out though, is if it has been leaked anywhere. If it has, that may just be the motivation I would need to risk hacking my DS. I would have already, but I am worried about frying it. That would be not so cool :-/ I know the Halo idea will never and would never have gone over with Microsoft. They have no reason to let one of their "babies" on to a competitor's system. Still, the thought of playing Halo on a DS is just so awesome.

I may get into playing Diablo II again. Turns out my little sister just started playing. And even though I live in the sticks and have dial up, I can still play it OK. I used to like creating sorceresses. Those were probably my favorite. And I sort of miss running through 5,000+ cows and seeing if I could kill them all off on my own :)

Concert

Well I started a post over the weekend, but my computer decided it would be a good time to randomly shut off, so here I am making another attempt. The concert was good - in fact, my uncle is *still* talking about it. Had I known he would have enjoyed it so much, I would have gotten better seats. He really loved the show. They do sound great live - and Eddie brought along his son, Wolfgang so that he could have a chance to tour & play guitar with him. Lets just say that it was cute and all, but he certainly isn't his dad!

That was the concert. Getting to the concert was a mess. Now, I think that Google is a rather neat company, and I've even made joking remarks about how they're going to take over the world. Except for Google Maps. I've used Google Maps before, and they've been horribly wrong. Not just a turn or two off, but exceptionally terrible. It had been a few years since that incident, so thinking they may have gotten things straightened out, I printed them out to Cleveland. My uncle knew how to get there, but looking at the directions, they looked much shorter by Google, so we went with those. Big mistake. The 1 1/2-2 hour drive to Cleveland ended up being over 2 1/2 hours. We arrived just 10 minutes before the show started (and that was with cutting off the long line waiting for the garage - by accident. Seriously.)

All in all it was fun. But I'm officially boycotting Google Maps!

Van Halen tomorrow

Tomorrow is the Van Halen concert already! It seems like just yesterday I ordered the tickets. I also found out who the opening act is too. It's Bob Marley's son,Ky Mani, which is a great disappointment to my uncle, but on the other hand, not so much for me :). I have a very diverse liking of music. In fact, I love reggae. If he throws in a few of his dad's hits like he did in the previous shows, it'll be really cool. I'll have to leave work early tomorrow because the show is at 7:30 and uncle insists on getting there 1 hour before it starts, as he always does for concerts. That on top of a 2 hour drive.

Then this past weekend John and I were throwing around the idea of going to see Halloween, the new movie by Rob Zombie. But it wasn't playing anywhere that we could find. I'm thinking it must have done pretty bad at the box office, because last we looked it was a new release. So instead we decided to rent a movie - and end up with Shawn of the Dead. John ultimately just thought it was weird, and although I found it to be weird too, I also like British humor. So it was sort of amusing to me. There were parts I thought were really funny that he just didn't. I'm still evaluating what my overall rating would be, but it's something I'd probably watch again. It's something you should at least give a chance to if you like British humor :)

Verizon Text Messaging

I received my first Verizon bill having text messages on it. I learned there is something I don't exactly like about Verizon: Text messaging is 15 cents. I still like Verizon as a provider more, but with Cell One, it used to be 10 cents outgoing and all incoming was free. (That was nice). Then they had to follow suit with other providers and make all the texting 10 cents. I didn't love the idea, but accepted it. But now being charged 50% more than I'm used to paying, not so cool. Especially when anyone who takes the time to send me a text message can easily just call or send me an email. And vice versa. So, I had it blocked. I'm not exactly sure what will happen if someone tries to send me a text, but I won't be receiving it. I just hope that if someone does try and are alerted that the message didn't go through, that they don't get charged for the message either :(

Anniversary and a Birthday

Saturday and Sunday were quite special days for me. Saturday, I got to celebrate one year being with the greatest guy in the entire world. He made reservations for us to go out to dinner at this place called Cliffords in Evans City. I had never heard of it, but it is a rather high end place - and that is made quite obvious by looking at the menu prices alone. The food was good, but we had to end up taking 3 boxes home with us because we had so much left over! Then later into the night it was time to start celebrating his birthday, which was on Sunday. I drove after we got back, so he could celebrate it "right" (although I must say, he didn't get near the free shots that I did on mine :P )

We eventually headed back to his house for the night, and I waited until he fell asleep. I snuck upstairs and decorated around with 'Happy Birthday' stuff. I laid out all of his presents, and even managed to bake him a cake, icing it, and get back to bed before he noticed. I knew I had to be quick and quiet, but I managed to pull it off. Sunday morning when we woke up, I asked him to help me pick some cherry tomatoes outside, basically just to get him upstairs. He was really surprised with everything. It was great. Very fun and memorable weekend for the two of us... :)

Kennywood and a birthday present

Saturday the 15th has been planned for our Kennywood trip for some time. With the many 90 degree days (and I recall plenty as my car has no AC in it for the hour drive home for work each day), we figured weather would be the least of our concerns. This wasn't exactly the case. The forecast called for 50's - and sure enough, it was just that. As if the weather wasn't bad enough, I learned that Kennywood isn't exactly the most fun place on earth. I'm not sure if Cedar Point just spoiled me the week before, but I just wasn't impressed with that place. John and I arrived around 11:30a (rides start at 11) and had planned on staying until 10p when they close - but we ran out of rides to ride! We even rode the "best" one there (The Phantom's Revenge) twice, and rode a few of the (what I call) carnival rides. We ended up leaving around 5p because that was about all of the Kennywood we really wanted.

Today the boy and I decided to go fishing in the pond on the farm. Just before leaving to do so, I got a text message, just in time for my phone to die. It was from Alan asking if I "got my mail" yet today. I remembered last week he said something about sending me something so, when we got to Mercer, I checked the mail. He did send me something - Brain Academy for the Wii! I was so surprised, that is the last thing I would have expected. He had already got me all this other stuff for my birthday, which he gave me at Cedar Point, and now this! (And yes, Alan, you are bad!) I haven't gotten to play it because my Wii is at John's, but I can't wait to. Wednesday I'll get to do that. I bet it's going to be awesome :)

Birthday Weekend

I had a pretty good birthday - other than the fact I had to turn another year older ;) Friday John and I went out and I enjoyed getting some free drinks, mainly because he thought it was a good idea to announce it to everyone. I had this one shot for the first time that I really liked - warm apple pie. It was really good. We ended up having a little bit too much fun though, and couldn't quite get up on time to go to Cedar Point. We finally did make it, got to ride a few things, then the rain came.

Alan and Leah are the only other two that made it. Which was a little silly because it was Jeff's idea to start. I'm hoping we'll all be able to do something in the near future together though. Not like an amusement park or anything, just all of us hanging out, epecially since we didn't get to Cedar Point until so late. I feel like I didn't get to see Alan or Leah as much as I had liked.

So during the trip, I decided I was going to do the age guessing thing, even though paying $5 for that is highway robbery. They had a great guess -> 21. That humored me a bit.

Then today the boy and I headed over to my mother's for my birthday. She never really gets me anything nice, so this year I decided I was going to give her a list. She usually gets me, to put it bluntly, junk. There are some cute things sometimes, but a lot of it is junk. So this year when she asked what I wanted, I gave her a list: Wii Carnival Games, Wii Brain Academy, roller blades, tackle box, Espresso machine, and a MemoryFoam pillow. All I was aiming for was no junk. I ended up getting all these little trinkets (aka: junk), a picture of my brother and sister, and a MemoryFoam pillow. Most of the stuff was something you'd get somebody who is 10. It's just frustrating, especially when I am expected to buy my brother, sister, and her anything they ask for.

Labor Day

I can't believe it's September already! And September means a few things - one of my being a year older. Although, it should be fun - it's this Saturday and a trip to Cedar Point! Confirmed are me, John, Leah, Jeff, and Alan - and possibly some other random girl that Alan and/or Jeff are bringing. Which would be nice to make it an even number.

The tickets for Halen still haven't come in, although Ticketmaster claims they have something like until 48 hours of the show to get them to you. Still, I hope they get here soon.

Friday was my sister's birthday. John and I went over after work for the "party" (meaning him and me). For once, I didn't get everything on my sister's list that my mom told me to. I'm not sure how she took that, and I really don't care. I made the mistake a while ago of buying anything my mom basically told me was my responsibility - the stuff she wasn't going to get. I used to spend hundreds of dollars on them - each birthday, Christmas, Easter, etc - and basically, I've decided I wasn't going to do that anymore. One reason being, I am trying to save for a car. And really, that shouldn't be my responsibility anyway. I am venting a bit, but my mom has always been very materialistic. It's her nature, I swear. I feel like if I didn't always get them (including her) everything they wanted, she would tell my brother & sister I didn't care about them as much, and use that to back it up. I can only hope that someday they'll understand much beyond that frame of mind.

Halen tickets & party

Today was my uncle's birthday. I got him some movies, a gift certificate to Music For A Song, and 2 tickets to see Van Halen - 1 for him, 1 for me. The tickets went on sale Saturday at 10am and sold out by the end of the day so I'm glad I got them when I did. They are an ok band, but he loves them, so he was very happy about that. The concert is October 10th at the Quicken Loans arena (formerly Gund Arena) in Cleveland. We used to go to concerts like crazy when I was younger, so this should be a fun time. I'll have to request Thursday off though - there's no way I'm going even pretend I'll be able to go to work the next day.



Saturday, John and I were originally going to the next Barn Bash of the summer. But his one relative came in town from Seattle, and they decided to have a party for him. Sure we missed the barn bash and Victor Lee's general tso's, but we had so much fun. Wes, his one cousin, DJ'd and he was really good at it. People were all dancing around - it was awesome. Everything from The Twist to the Cha Cha Slide. We had Saki there too - Jen's a fan of Saki :)

Weekend

This past weekend was spent a bit of a drive away, but still cool. John was in a wedding of a good friend from college. It was in Cooperstown, NY so we took the day off on Friday to get up bright and early to be there for the rehearsal at 4p. The wedding was on a Saturday as most are, and it was a fun time. Although it was sort of strange, we were so busy we didn't have time to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Neither one of us are huge baseball fans - but it seemed like the natural thing to do given being in Cooperstown :-p Oh well..

I am now the proud carrier of Verizon. I ended up with a LG Chocolate phone, which I'm finding out a lot of people do not care for. Maybe I'm just used to Cell One's crappy phones, but I do really like this one! And from my company's discount + mail in rebate, it was free, so I can't complain too much :)

I found out a little more on the fishing tournament for Sunday. I'm not so crazy about it. For one, it's $150 to sign up, plus it's on my uncle's birthday. I read through the rules too, and some of them seem kind of lame. It would still be fun, but at the same time I'm thinking I could fish for free anywhere I like - especially in a pond on my farm, which I found out not too long ago has some fairly nice fish in it!

Meteors and other things

I was out tonight, in the middle of my yard, on a sleeping bag, enjoying the Perseid shower.. well, until I saw something in the trees. At first it looked like the moon: bright and orangish yellow, as I saw it out of the corner of my eye. Until it dawns upon me - um: new moon for the Perseids. This gets me really interested so I get up and run down my yard until I have full sight of it - and it's moving. It's orangish yellow color, brighter than you would believe, and it's moving. Not in a straight line either, not flashing, and definitely in our atmosphere. I'm a little freaked out - still. I watched it pass over and I stayed out there a bit longer, but couldn't stop thinking about that thing. Just the other day I heard Hot 101 talking about Alien abductions and the whole Area 51 thing and I just wanted to come inside. I am probably just over-exaggerating, but it really did freak me out. I mean, I've never seen anything like it. At all.

In happier news, I was reading the Tri-County paper for this week and there's a fishing tournament in Lake Arthur soon! It's bass only (which is a good thing) and John said we just need to get a boat registered in the lake and we're good to go! (He fishes there, but uses this 1 person 'belly boat' thing or something). It's August 26th, and it's for the Kyle McFeely Scholarship, who was a guy attending SRU in his senior year when he was killed in a tragic car accident. It'll be for a good cause and an excuse to fish :)

Cell phone

I can't decide on which cell phone to get. I am stuck in the "uncool" crowd as I end my (last ever) 2-year contract with Cellular One this month. (I really despise that provider). Anyhow, I'm fairly sure I will be switching to Verizon (since that's what John and the rest of the world has), but I don't know which phone I want. And I need to decide before August 20th in order to keep my phone number. Right now, I am leaning towards a Cherry Chocolate, but the enV has also taken a bit of my interest. At the same time, I don't need anything too fancy. I won't have a data package, and I will minimally use text messaging. I just want something that is small, bluetooth capable, and isn't one of those standard flip phones. Of course, one thing that I will miss is the ability remove the memory card from my phone, and put any songs or pictures I like on it. I was told Verizon puts their stupid little software on all of their phones to ensure you pay for doing those types of things :-/

Back from Canada

And I'm back *whew*! I'm almost thinking I should have taken Monday off of work or something. I have a ton of laundry to do, still some stuff to put away, and I've quasi-volunteered to do the farm's website (for the market stand) that I started on late Sunday after getting back.
Anyhow, Canada was an interesting time. We stayed in Norland at Lake Fishog that has no public land access, yet it is a public lake. So basically, unless you have a water plane or know someone who lives on it, you probably don't want to try to include it in your future Canada travels.
So it was 8 days - of fishing, drinking beer, and "roughing it". No electricity, no running water, just camping out and getting away from everything for a while. Certainly something I didn't know what to expect going into, but had a lot of fun doing!
Anyway, bugs love me, so I was putting on lots of bug spray. The bugs didn't really "bug" (lame pun intended) John the way they did me, so he was very fortunate in that aspect.
The fishing was really good. My largest fish were a 19" large mouth and a 17" small mouth. That was a lot of fun, and something I did everyday. The weather was great. It was warm and sunny with virtually no humidity everyday. It rained once for about 5 minutes - barely enough to mention. It made boating really nice in addition to the bit I decided to sun myself. I took my DS with me, but actually didn't get a whole lot of play out of it since I found myself being much more occupied than I had anticipated (mostly with fishing). I even brought a book I was really excited to read, but barely got through the first chapter.
Oh, and I took bunches of really cool pictures! I'm thinking about just buying a domain & space to put them on. Not sure what I'll do just yet but here's one to get you started - my small mouth :)

Canada!

I'm not sure where the time flew to, but it really has been since the 6th I last posted? Wow.

Anywho, the "Barn Bash" was awesome. Yes, so awesome, we are going to have another - August 25th I believe is the projected date. The band was great as always, and I enjoyed making cotton candy for everyone and answering the question of the night "So, why do you have a cotton candy machine?"

Last weekend John and I headed to Cabellas for our first time ever. That is a really cool place! Our venture there was to get some things for the upcoming trip to Canada for 8 days - fishing, camping, and well, basically being a PA hick. In the middle of no where, mind you. I ended up with 4 new lures. The one was a cute rainbow color, so of course I had to get it! :) A few of his other family members are going too - it's their family tradition. We leave this Friday to drive just north of Ontario. I started packing this past weekend and have done a bit more each day. I'm both excited and a bit overwhelmed because this will be truly roughing it. Bathing in the river, baby!

Today I stumbled upon a website - GetAFreelancer.com. It looks like the coolest thing ever. I just wish I knew more geeks so I could possibly tackle some of the larger projects too, like the 5G ones. The time constraint would just be too much for 1 person. I wanted to bid on a few small projects that I've seen, but until I get back from Canada, I think I'll hold off on that.

Fair & Fireworks

The 4th of July was spent at the Big Butler Fair with the boy. We rode rides, played games, and saw the fireworks at the end, which were a little disappointing for being the "Big" Butler Fair. I played a ping pong game and two fish followed me home. A silver one and a gold one. They're still nameless. John doesn't give them two weeks. (Unfortunately, he's probably right).

I finished with the Mario shirts, as you can see below :)



They were fun. I think I want to make some more characters now. John wants a Duck Hunt one, and I think I may make a Zelda one for me.

Now I'm getting excited for the Barn Bash on Saturday, I think it will be tons of fun! I just need to remember to stop and get sugar for the cotton candy machine.

4th of July!

This week is neat because we work 2 days, (obviously) get the 4th off and then we work 2 more! Although, had the 4th fallen on a Tuesday or Thursday we would get that off too, but hey, I'm not complaining.
Tomorrow after work hours we see off Amy & Sean as they have found better homes, and then the boy and I and a few others head to the monthly Marti Gras where we eat seafood and pretend its February/March-ish :) Fireworks on Wednesday (somewhere we haven't decided yet), then my buddy Jeffy's annual Barn Bash is this weekend. We're even going to have a live blues band - Sweaty Betty. I have no idea how he convinced them to play, but it's going to be awesome. I'm bringing my industrial cotton candy machine - yes, it's going to be fun. Then next week everything slows down and Monday will, well, suck. Oh well, can't win them all..
I also started being a complete nerd and I am working on making Mario shirts. Mario as an 8-bit Mario, that is. I'm making one for John too. Yes, I think sometimes I need a life too.

Cars, RoR, & Weekend

Pictures shouldn't be allowed on here that are going to make me want a covertible (thanks Brian!) :) Although I had considered an RX8, I started thinking about the winter. A sports car like that + winter roads = a potential chaos. And at least for right now, I'm looking for a car for year round. Although Brian's car is quite nice and does make me want to have one!

I started playing around a little with Ruby on Rails. If you have only heard of Ruby, you need to check out Rails. It's Ruby but you can do so much more with it. It's pretty nifty. Although I wonder if I'll be obsessed with it like the people who use it on a regular basis.. lol. This is pretty hilarious though, and being a Java developer, I could completely appreciate it -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbuyKUaKFo.

This past weekend was spent in Allegheny National Forest with John and his brother. We just headed up there for some camping and (attempted) fishing. We hit up a place called "Buzzard Swamp" that people usually rave about - although it was a unanimous decision that none of us were up the 2 1/2 mile walk to the pond that - was supposedly - only supposed to be 1 mile away. We fished a bit at the 2 ponds that were at the 1 mile & 1+ mile marker, but didn't have much success. But if we attempt that again, at least we'll have a better idea of what we're in for.

Then Sunday was my little brother's birthday. He turned 14. I got him a video/MP3 player - something he has wanted for a long time. He was SO excited :) The look on his face was worth every penny and more. It made me really happy :)

Cars cont.

I have to thank Alan for the short, little advice about the car - which was actually a lot of wise advice. I think sooner or later I did need a reality check. Especially because this will be my first brand new car, I could easily see myself going overboard a bit, and I certainly have that potential. He is right though - it isn't an investment. I do want something small and fuel efficient, but if I started tacking on all these extra little "goodies", I could end up with a car priced around what a cheap Jag could be, and the thoughts just go downhill from there. I also found out that we have the option of a Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge. At this point, I'm leaning towards a Mazda. They are one of the few that have the option of getting a manual in, and they are fuel efficient and cute :)

Weekend & New Car?

Why has it felt like it's been forever since I've posted? Oh yeah, because it has! This weekend was fun. Saturday I attended the President's Award of Excellence ceremony that I got nominated for, and it was really cool. You could bring 1 guest, so of course I took the boyfriend. It was one of those things that makes you feel ..like rich for a day almost. There was an open bar for about 2 hours, servers dressed in black & white uniform came around with all sorts of fancy hors dourves, and we even got professional pictures taken with the city or the stadium as our background :) The meal was very good, followed by the ceremony, and then a huge chocolate fountain to dip all kinds of crazy things in. John and I had thought about just staying down there for the night, then we realized it was the US Open and spending 2 grand for a hotel for a night wasn't exactly our cup of tea!
Sunday was spent with the fam for father's day, and we also ended up at a graduation party that entirely too many people were at. Sunday was also the last day I was giving myself to trade in my DS - which now I have decided against because word on the street is that there will be a third DS. This one is supposed to have a bigger screen, but I am curious as to what they will do about the resolution if that is true. I guess only time will tell.
I also am thinking about buying a new car! My company has this program where you may purchase a car at/around invoice. I can pick from the following makes: Ford, Lincoln, Mazda, Volvo, Mercury, Land Rover, and Jaguar. I'm tossing around a Mustang or Mazda but still have some thinking/debating to do. There are a few options I'd want, such as heated seats, remote entry, manual transmission, but then I start thinking about extras like "convertible" and while I'm pretty sure I'll be able to afford the car, I should also consider if I will be able to afford the insurance :) I'm also torn about the color. I don't think I want red, but that's about it.

Fishing and Strawberry Days!

I can't believe it's the end of the weekend already! It was a fun one but a very fast one too. John's family is a riot. They are all so cool and so fun. I think I like his family more than my own sometimes. Saturday we got up bright and early to start our fishing tournament on a pontoon boat with about 5 others. I only caught 1 fish which was a perch, but the fish weren't really biting. Regardless, we had a lot of fun. All kinds of things happened - we temporarily lost a pole to the Great Pymatuning Lake, we almost sunk the boat, I kept catching trees, John caught the motor of the boat. It kept things interesting and gave us stuff to laugh about. Then for dinner we all ate the fish, in addition to a ton of other things. The amount of food there was crazy!
Also this weekend was Strawberry Days in Grove City, and I decided to stop in for a bit today coming back from camp. The main reason I stopped was because I wanted to get a strawberry pie for John. He loves strawberry pie, and it seems like a likely thing to have at a little shindig called "Strawberry Days", right? Wrong. I looked and looked and could not find a place selling much of strawberry anything. Finally I found the stand that was for the general event. and I asked the lady about the pie. Her response was a point and "Uh.. I think there may be strawberry flavored ice cream over at that one" What Einstein decided to call it "Strawberry Days" when there is virtually no strawberry-related stuff there? I should start a petition to have the name changed.
I also now know the names of my anonymous posters (the other told me offline). Not that it was a big deal though because a blog is indeed online and made to be read so I think it is cool that anyone would even be interested in reading it! And Brian, you don't have to feel "stalkerish" at all - I know of and have an idea of some who read it, only difference is you actually post comments :) You shouldn't be so hard on yourself either, I remember you in school and you were very smart. One thing I didn't know though is that you're a gamer. Very cool.

Fun Weekend Ahead!

A correction to a previous blog: "Trace Memory" is not an RPG. I'm not sure which game I was getting it mixed up with when I bought it, but apparently I either misheard something or just wasn't thinking. Or both. So if you were expecting something like my personal favorite RPG, FF Tactics, then you may be sadly disappointed. However, it is a neat game nonetheless, and I still plan on playing it until I beat it, because there are supposed to be a few cool things 2nd play through.
So today, my boyfriend and I head to Dick's Sporting Goods where he bought for me my very own fishing pole and reel *grin* I'm mostly German, but I also am part "hick". Yes, I like to fish. Up until now, I had been using his fishing stuff when we go fishing, and he decided I should have my own. We're headed up to Pymatuning this weekend where many of his many family members congregate, camp, fish, and drink beer. All weekend. I'm already packed, and I can't wait!
We also this week got to see Pirates 3. I'm really not a fan of long movies. I knew going into it that it was a shade under 3 hours, and that I'd probably figure that it could have been much shorter. It could have been. I'm not going to give anything away, but one area they could have shortened up were the battle scenes. There just wasn't enough content in them to justify dragging the scenes out like that. It is a movie you have to pay close attention to, which is another thing I found odd - because it's a children's movie. For myself, I liked the plot. In fact, I would probably give that the highest rating because of the creativity and complexity that went into it and all of the irony that came out of it. But it was not a suitable plot for a children's movie IMHO. As for the rolling credits.. that roll.. and roll for eternity, I absolutely recommend Alan's suggestion of staying until they are over to see the "last part" of the movie. So much that I think that should have been in that actual part of the movie. All in all, a recommended watch, but not my favorite of the three. Now with all this Pirates talk, I'm getting the itch to watch the first one again :)

A Random Monday

In response to yesterday's blog's comments, I have to say I agree with Alan on preferring the "geek" terminology versus "tech freak". Although when writing the conversion app, ^[M](rs?|s)$ Anonymous seems to have remembered the null terminator for the ending of the hex string. Kudos to you, because the first version of a converter I had written a while back, I forgot about that (though the conversions still worked, technically speaking that is the correct way). Although, I guess it depends on what you write it in (ie what functionality you have access to) or if you overwrite any of the methods.
In other news, on my way home this evening, I (again) hear this song "Girlfriend" by Avril Lavra- er whatever her name is. And the DJ informs the listeners that she was "intoxicated" when she wrote the song. Not sure if she is just saying that for publicity or what, but all I could think was if that was the case, this chick should stay sober for the rest of her entire existence. That song is terrible.
I also started playing the second game I bought yesterday, Trace Memory. It's an RPG. Granted I've only played it a bit, but so far, I am really liking this one.

Pirates and Video Games!

Having a blog is sort of like having one of those virtual pets, like those little nano or gigapets that came out a few years back. Nothing will happen if I don't post things on here, but I feel I have some type of quasi-commitment to it. Like every once in a while I should dedicate the time. But at the same time, what if I don't? Nothing will *actually* happen. I have to laugh at the situation a little, but alas, I sit here writing.. :)
So anyway, the boy and I tried to see Pirates 3 at the drive in. We went and stocked up on snacks, brought a few brews, and we were ready for a nice, romantic, fun night. Then it starts to pour just as we were pulling in. I mean POUR. We attempted the movie for a bit, then decided it will be much better when we can actually see it. And hear it. Although from the little we did see.. looks a bit stranger than the first two. But we decided that we will make a later attempt sometime - so we'll see what it's like on the rain-check - no pun intended.
Today I finished up a little shopping spree. Work gave out our <sarcasm>ever-so-large </sarcasm> bonuses, and I decided to just buy a few things. Nothing really huge, just some stuff I wanted. It started late last week with a Starbucks French coffee press, cinnamon roll-flavored coffee, and clothes. Today, I ended up at Sally's Boutique buying way too much there, and I ventured to EBgames with two DS games following me home: Brain Boost (which seems kind of lame so far) and Trace Memory which I have not yet played, but seems to have a cool plot from what I've read. I also found out that later this month they will be releasing Big Brain Academy for the Wii. Excuse me while I get a tissue for the drool........ Ok, I'm back. Then I was looking at the DS lite. Yeah, I want one :( I have a DS and EB will buy it from you for $40 normally, but they are running a special until the 17th that they'll buy it for $60. Do I need a Dlite? Nope. Does that make the decision easier? Nope :)

And Long Weekend Ends

Memorial day weekend is now over and a fun one it was! I think I'm actually partied out! Friday I left work early, got home in enough time to get the rest of the chores done, take a nice little nap, and got out of here before the tyrants showed up. (I don't sleep when they are here because they are worse than being nocturnal - they just never sleep.) Then Saturday, John and I headed to a "house party" where we had a blast and learned that Google can actually return "WHHAAT?!?" :) Then Sunday over to his sister Jackie's for a bonfire party, Monday the quintessential Memorial Day cookout at his sister Pam's, then a nice Monday evening where we (finally) got to watch the second Pirates of the Caribbean.
Now I have a strange stance on that movie. I am not sure as to where it originated from, but back when the first one came out, I had the misconception that this was a scary movie. Anyone who knows me knows I love scary movies. But low and behold, it was a children's movie; I quickly lost interest and ended up sleeping through 1/2 of the thing. John had been wanting to see the second one, so I told him if he would like, I would watch it with him. After all, it wasn't like I *hated* the thing, it just didn't catch my interest. Then I saw the second one yesterday, and it was like a "Napoleon Dynamite" scenario with me. Johnny Depp's character really started to grow on me. The way he deals with situations and dilemmas just cracks me up. He never gets angry or upset, but always attempts to act very smooth, and it is just so silly. However, of course I do have a complaint! What is up with that ending-ish thing? It was like Gore Verbinski just got tired and said "good enough! everyone go home!" I was horribly disappointed in wasting 2 & 1/2 hours just to find myself wondering when the next time I'll be able to get to the theaters to see the actual ending!
Also, thanks to my friend Alan, in case you don't want to waste too many of your randomly bored moments reading this thing, here is a website that is quite funny :) http://www.bash.org/?top

Problem Solving Toolkit

I'm taking this problem solving toolkit class at work. It's a two day course. Initially I took it because one, I need to take some classes for my IDP (Individual Development Plan), and well, I really don't mind getting away from the office once in a while, and I'm sure the vast majority of you well know why. Anyway, so far we've played a few mini-games that I thought were really neat. I'm a fan of thinking games, so I thought I'd post them here:

Draw a circle. Now draw 3 lines to make the circle into at least 8 parts.

From the roman numeral number 9 below, draw one single line to make it a 6:
IX

Take 10 small pieces of something (for instance, we got M&Ms). Make 5 lines of 4 items each.

Lastly, a group brainstorming exercise. Think of all the different ways one can use a paperclip. I got pretty creative there.. my team won :)

World's Hardest Riddle

For just creating this blog out of (more or less) no where, I have found myself thinking of all kinds of things to write about. This may be something I'm kinda diggin' after all. Which is sort of funny to me.
Well anyway, so the other day I see this "World's Hardest Riddle" on myspace. For those of you not familiar with it or just want to read it again, I'll paste it below. (And if you don't want to see the answer right away, I suggest trying to figure it out first, as I have it below.)

I turn polar bears white
and I will make you cry.
I make guys have to pee
and girls comb their hair.
I make celebrities look stupid
and normal people look like celebrities.
I turn pancakes brown
and make your champagne bubble.
If you squeeze me, I'll pop.
If you look at me, you'll pop.
Can you guess the riddle?


97% of Harvard graduates can not
figure this riddle out, but 84% of kindergarten students were able to figure
this out in 6 minutes or less. Can you guess the correct answer?

And of course there was the nice little bit at the end about "post this and the answer will appear in your inbox blah blah blah .." Yeah. Anyway, I'm trying to think of the answer. I mean, I really thought about this for a while. When I finally decided to just google it to see if I could find it on the internet, I was rather disappointed. (The answer of course, being "No" - in response to the last line of the riddle.) I wasn't sure if the greater feeling was the disappointment of the "answer" to the riddle or the stupidity I was feeling. But a lesson I've learned from my little Mensa calendar at work, knowing "how" to think is sometimes as intelligent as knowing what to think. Indeed. So, aside of the simple answer to the question, there is bound to be those philosophical people who are bound and determined to come up with an answer to more than just the question, but the "thing" actually described in the first person of the riddle. I thought it was rather interesting. I liked 3 in particular: words, time, and God. Although if I had to pick one, I'd say time. (Because eventually everything goes back to God, time would just be more specific.) I did start to think abstractly about it a few times, but I kept going back to the whole kindergarten deal and then kept dumbing it down. Obviously I just didn't dumb it down quite enough.

A blog!

So I figured out by mishap that since I have a gmail account, I automatically have a "blog". Interesting. I'm not exactly sure how this will go over though. I never really considered myself to be a "blogger", but I figured I'd set it up just for the heck of it. Aside of using about the lamest excuse in the book to even have this thing, there should probably exist a disclaimer for it too for anyone who decides to read it instead of doing something more productive. First, it probably won't be "funny" or "comical" or really all that interesting. I used to have a little diary-type thing when I was younger that I liked to keep. I slowly stopped writing in it, and I thought if I would start one again, maybe start it as a blog. Who knows, if its on here, I can pretend people are reading it and I may actually keep it up to date a little! Second, from time to time I will write about my boyfriend, John. Depending on the amount of "gush" you like, some may want to opt out on reading these. Third, I don't know how often I will write in this thing. There may be some boring/this-is-the-lamest-blog-ever times. Like I said, this blogging thing is all new to me. And who knows? Maybe I'll like it and post lots. I guess only time will tell..