Christmas time is here

Stream of consciousness post in 3...2...1...

• I am a fan of the Christmas season. Especially now that my shopping is more than 75% done!
• I think I'm done buying music games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc. Unless they release Rock Band: Nine Inch Nails or Rock Band: Phish or something like that. Also, no buying any more plastic instruments.
• I beat Super Mario 64 for the first time ever today. I never really liked it when I tried to play it on my N64 - I think I missed the side-scrolling world that I knew and thought the camera/controls were stinky. But I bought it for the Wii Virtual Console over a year ago and I was inspired to give it a try after beating New Super Mario Bros Wii. And you know - it was pretty good. I guess I didn't give it a fair shake back in the day.
• Speaking of New Super Mario Bros Wii, I loved that game. I'd recommend it to any fan of the old-school Mario games or the DS version. Nintendo could pump out a new side-scrolling Mario game every year and I would buy and enjoy every single one. Playing with friends is definitely challenging, though. I've only been brave enough to try two people and that's chaotic enough. Having four people running around, bumping each other off platforms and stealing power-ups...would be hilarious and frustrating in equal measures, I think.
• Next on the gaming agenda: Super Mario Sunshine. Never played that either. Then I'll probably play through Super Mario Galaxy again unless I get something more exciting for Christmas :)
  
• Our house's Christmas lights look fabulous. And by fabulous, I mean slightly over the top (I'm looking at you, red LED sign proclaiming "Merry Christmas" in the window that Matt picked out). LED lights are so freakin' bright! The lights on our tree (real tree, of course) are old-school standard lights, though. So we have a little of both.
• Piper has puked up fake greenery from garlands a LOT. At least it isn't balling up in her intestines.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The smells here at the mini-ranch are getting really good!

They say it's my birthday...

Happy birthday to me!

Quick life updates in celebration...

• Pene got a clean bill of health last week. Her kidney values were SO good that she doesn't have to continue with fluids, special food, or anything, and she doesn't need rechecking for 6 months. So although we'll never know what caused her problems in the first place, it was something like an acute illness or her eating something bad, and NOT chronic kidney problems. Yay!
• Cousin Lisa and Lyla came to visit last weekend. I even did a good 4 hour stretch of babysitting all by myself. I was way too proud of that accomplishment, but hey, it was my first real time taking care of such a little one (or just about any kid, actually). And Lisa is coming back next weekend with the whole family in tow for Carolyn's 83rd birthday celebration., so this all makes me very happy.
• Dragon Age: Origins is a good video game. Not as amazingly awesome as I'd hoped (my expectations were way too high) but very enjoyable and I look forward to playing through it multiple times. Also video game-related - I am quite excited about the New Super Mario Bros Wii game that comes out tomorrow. I might actually be able to get Matt to play with me!

Well, I should go. Pene is going crazy because we've taken out her ranch bag and put on her collar, which means she is ready to go to the mini-ranch RIGHT NOW. =D

Pene's friend

The last thing Pene deserved was to be sick again, but sometimes life isn't fair for dogs either. She went in for her annual check-up on September 26, and the routine blood work showed that her kidneys were having some serious issues. Her BUN and creatinine were really high. So last week she spent two days at Metro Paws getting IV fluids and was started on antibiotics and special food (low in protein). At no point did she ever seem sick. We didn't discover any particular reason (like toxin exposure or infection) for her kidneys to be not working correctly. It could be that they were damaged during her awful bout with distemper and might be permanently damaged :( What we're doing now, along with her special diet and antibiotics, is administering subcutaneous fluids twice a week at home. I stick her with a big needle under the skin of her back and Matt squeezes in a liter of saline. It makes her look like she has a camel hump, or like Murphy when he had his "sidecar"/"friend"/tumor.

She is SO good when we give her the fluids. We think she might honestly not even notice what we're doing, aside from that we're keeping her in one place. We do it at night when she's calm and sleepy, and that helps a lot.

What the plan is now is for her to get the fluid treatment twice a week for a month. Then we'll recheck the blood work. Then we'll do a month without fluids, followed by blood work again. At that point we should know more about the nature of her kidney problems.

two words

Two words: honeycrisp apples. That's right - the best apples ever are back in time for fall. If you even remotely like apples, then you should try a nice red honeycrisp apple (not too ripe, now). Bliss!

Things have been fun in the Hall-Roberts household recently. We went down to College Station last weekend to watch the Aggies beat the hell outta Utah State. We were actually pretty worried at the beginning but then A&M hit their stride. And we didn't have to watch the scary close call when Utah State surged back to within 8 points at the end of the game because we're 2%-er Old Ags who had to drive back to Dallas that night who left early. We sat in the student section (thanks Luke!) and I think I may be getting too old to keep that up for long. That is a lot of standing! Luckily it wasn't a sold out game so we weren't packing in 5 extra people on our already crowded row like the popular games. We book-ended the A&M game with time with Mom (and Pene) at the mini-ranch. Mom was a hunting widow that weekend (dove), so we enjoyed keeping her company. Pene spent FIVE hours on Saturday hanging out under a cluster of trees with squirrels keeping her attention up above. Mom would look out to check on her - yep, still watching the squirrels.

The weekend before the A&M game, I had a last minute opportunity to see Leslie in Austin while she was there for a 24-hour business trip. We got to have dinner and coffee and we actually watched the bats fly out from the Congress Avenue bridge. It was an awesome visit and really nice to catch up with her. Then on Monday and Tuesday I hung out with cousin Lisa, Miles, and Lyla. Miles is talking SO much now, and he finally has my name down (I'm [Aunt] "Camei"). I think he enjoyed knowing how to get my attention. We took the kiddos to Zilker Park to ride the little train and then I played on the playground with Miles. He rode a big-boy swing for the first time (Lisa was white-knuckled the whole time that was going on =P). On Tuesday we went to an indoor bouncy house place (why did these not exist when I was little?). Miles loved it. He also wanted me to do everything with him. (Aunt Camei is a little bit of a pushover). So we went down the slide a billion times and rolled around in the Finding Nemo bounce house and I helped him do somersaults and all sorts of things. It was great fun and I was exhausted!

Other news...Matt and I go on a little trip to Colorado next month, so we're getting excited about that. His September deadline at work was very easy and I enjoyed having him around more than last year. In August I switched gyms from the Lake Highlands YMCA to LA Fitness and I've been working out a lot. I really like my new gym. Also, I got a personal trainer through them, and I see her (Casey) once a week. It's been pretty rewarding and I've learned a lot so far.

O Dear

OU, my deepest sympathies.

The Aggies won, thank goodness. (Whoop!) At least we'll have one win this season. Of course, now Matt's convinced (he says) that we'll win the national championship...he was pretty adorable today flipping between all the football games. It was like Christmas morning for him.

lovely weather

I rode my bike around the lake a couple times yesterday evening and it was incredibly nice. I hope all of September is as nice or better than the end of August!

Is anyone else excited about Dragon Age: Origins?

Oh oh, but I am much more excited about what comes out next week - The Beatles: Rock Band!!

(who can guess what Matt is most looking forward to that starts this weekend?)

Downtown

I'm sitting here at AT&T plaza downtown, and it is really nice. Cool breeze, shade, fountains. And it makes me think about how there are actually nice parts of downtown Dallas. It is a shame we get to experience them so little.

I am downtown this morning for school. My A&P class is using a new edition of the textbook, and of course with this being the second half of the course, I already had the book in the now one-edition-outdated form. So I rode the train with Matt this morning to visit the El Centro library and compare the new edition (12) with my edition (11). Shockingly, little is different other than fonts and the cover picture. Now I'm armed with translated page numbers and can use my 11th edition book worry-free. Textbooks are such a scam.

And now I'm going to visit the big branch of the Dallas library just for fun. Yay for downtown adventures!

---------------------
update 12:30pm

I had a good time at the downtown library overall. Matt and I are planning a trip back to Colorado in October (because we just can't get enough), so I found five Colorado travel books to check out. Also, I got ahead in my A&P class by reading half of the chapter on the digestive system. It was hard to concentrate though, because some guy was carrying on an entire texting conversation on his non-qwerty cell phone with the keypad volume cranked up. Beep beep beepbeepbeep beepbeep beep...good lord, put it on silent! Unfortunately, a lot of the patrons at the central library scare me, so I did not have the courage to ask him to be quiet. After library time was over, I met Matt for lunch at Subway. Then I rode the train back home and here I am. I liked my downtown adventure.

hey there

Hey there, blog. It's been a while, I know.

School time is here again. For me too, actually - I'm taking the second half of the anatomy & physiology class that I took in the spring from DCCCD. So that got started today.

We went and saw District 9 yesterday. Movies are only $5 before noon at North Park! It was pretty good. Considering the story of the making of the movie, though, it was amazing.

Matt is getting busy at work again. Nothing crazy, but he'll be working extended hours until October 15.

Pene just vomited a gallon of liquid onto our bed. It was pretty disgusting. She has an unfortunate habit of throwing up on our bed, but I guess I should be glad that our bedding is much more easily washed than carpet and our mattress pad is water resistant.

Mt. Democrat

So I've been on vacation in Breckenridge the last couple weeks with the Roberts family. Matt and I ended the trip with a bang by hiking a 14er - Mt. Democrat. It was short but very steep. A nice lady took our picture on the summit. (yes, those are socks on my hands...it was cold)

new Simon's Cat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1qHVVbYG8Y

puzzles and birthday wishes

Also, I submit to you, lovely readers: what better way to use a table for the first time than to do a puzzle on it? (especially a Colorado puzzle!!)


And finally, happy birthday to my friend Brian!

evidence

Pene has been a bit of a handful lately. Example: I left my 4th of July parade candy on the desk. Later, I come back and it is gone. Matt? Did you eat the candy? No? On the floor...wrappers. Pene is very good at unwrapping candy.

Maybe she'll learn at charm school (which starts tomorrow) that dum dums like her aren't allowed to eat Dum Dums.

Is my air cleaner?

I replaced the air filter on our A/C unit today and I really hope I did it correctly. Everything seems to be working just fine. It's no wimpy air filter either - it is a 20"x25"x4" behemoth that claims to be super snazzy. Me, I'm just glad Home Depot had them in the store. Changing the air filter is something that Matt and I were aware of intellectually, but really hadn't given enough thought to ever replacing the one that came with the house. Over two years ago. Yeah, whoops. I'm putting today's date on my Google calendar and next year I'll be on time.

I just thought to add this little tidbit: Infinite Undiscovery the game is about as lame as its name. I'm not really enjoying it much, and for once I'm happy that an RPG is described as short in length. I can't not finish RPGs.

was it only one day?

This weekend has me completely confused as to what day it is. Yesterday Matt and I did more than we usually do in a couple weekends' time, and today he's at work, so I was pretty convinced it was Monday just now. Like I said, yesterday was busy. I got up early and washed my car. Then we went to White Rock Lake to do some clean-up with the Sierra Club and KayakPower. Matt and I shared a double kayak and we fished out all manner of nasty things from the lake with our little grabby sticks. On our way back home, we stopped by the White Rock Lake farmers market. So all of this before lunch...quite different than our usual routine. Later on there was a nap for me and a viewing of "The Departed" for Matt. I played some Sim City 4 and Matt "accidentally" watched another movie. I made some dinner for us, we played some Guitar Hero, took a walk, and made it to bed at a reasonable hour. Nice!

furniture

Here are pictures of our new tables. Matt was really cute getting them set up just so.




Matt and I are big fans of mission-style furniture.

life is hard for Pene

Pene looks so world-weary in this picture.

We had a good 4th of July. We walked about a mile down Church Rd to watch the Lake Highlands parade and then wandered around the carnival-type thing at the end. We got free t-shirts, an "I Love Lake Highlands" button, and snow cones! Then we trekked back to the house (it was much hotter by then) and relaxed. Emily and Rick invited us over to hang out with them and their friends at the new house. It was the first time for Matt to see the inside and my first time to see it with furniture. It looks great! They have done a TON of painting and stuff to get it where they want it. Rick grilled us burgers and afterwards we played lots of pool volleyball. Matt and I didn't have a chance to come back from our two losses when he scraped all the skin off his pinky toe. Ouch.

On our drive home, we had left right before 9:30 and we saw no fewer than 8 separate professional fireworks displays from 635. It was a little scary knowing we were sharing the road with possibly drunk and distracted people.

The Dump

The Dump is a dangerous place! We went there to check out their rug sale because we needed one for our main living area. We left having purchased a rug, dining room table and chairs, and kitchen table and chairs, and wishing it was in our budget to get a chair and chest of drawers that we liked!

I'll post some pictures when things are delivered.

adorable

Sometimes the in-laws can be pretty darn cute - next week John is going away to band camp and Susie is hosting a sleep-over for friends. Adorable!

The new computer is coming along. I got one of the old hard drives hooked up and transferred the important files to the new computer. Unfortunately the other old hard drive (known as "the old old hard drive" as opposed to "the new old hard drive") needs an IDE connection, so I'll have to figure something out.

They released a triple pack of Phish songs for Guitar Hero and they rock. Especially Down with Disease...amazing! Fun to play guitar, sing, bass...haven't tried on drums yet, but how could Fishman's part disappoint?

finally!

The new computer came this evening and after a great ordeal, it is online and ready to go. Well, ready except that I haven't transferred my old stuff onto it yet. But it checks my e-mail and displays web pages bigger than my iPhone, so huzzah! That, and it looks badass.

Piper thinks we bought her the most expensive cardboard box collection ever. She'll be sad when they are gone.

Infinite what now?

I started playing the inexplicably named game Infinite Undiscovery yesterday. Maybe making up the word "undiscovery" sounded cooler to a non-native English speaker. It's alright so far...not great but I'm not far enough along to say for sure how much I like it.

Speaking of games, Rock Band made a Phish song available for download and play (Wilson from A Live One). Needless to say, there was much rejoicing at our house. Not nearly as much joy as when Matt discovered that Luke got them tickets for the opening night of Phish at Red Rocks in Colorado next month, though.

Next time you talk to Emily and Rick, congratulate them on the house they bought yesterday! :)

(posting from Matt's work laptop is much nicer than from my iPhone!)

RPGs

I am sitting in front of the TV ignoring the credits to "The Last Remnant" video game. I was struck again at how much better Final Fantasy games are compared to everything else (to me). I came late to Final Fantasy, not until FF X. But I quickly fell in love. In my Xbox 360 phase I have played a fair amount of RPGs (off the top of my head: Eternal Sonata, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, The Last Remnant) and none of them come close to FF. I haven't felt super compelled to replay any 360 RPGs yet, but I have played FF X to 100% three times, FF X-2 twice and FF XII twice). That is how much I like those games. I can't wait until FFXIII!

I'm typing this on my iPhone because the power supply blew on our computer. Although the other components appeared to survive, the computer had been going downhill and worrying me for a while. I hardly needed an excuse anyway, and so a new computer has been ordered. :) I hope it comes soon!

happy anniversary

That's our dessert from our 4th anniversary dinner at Stephan Pyles. We got the "banana tasting" dessert, which was a banana bread topped with cream and caramelized banana, banana parfait, and an ice cream sandwich. Before that, we stated with a shared salad - Farmstead Cheese Salad with Jamon Serrano, Granny Smith apples and Walnut Brittle. For our entrees, I had the USDA Prime Beef Tenderloin with Sweet Potato Chilaquiles and Pineapple Mole, and Matt got the Coriander-Cured Rack of Lamb with Ecuadorian Potato Cake (with green beans). Mine was really great; Matt's was okay. I loved the pineapple mole on top of the beef, and the sweet potato side was good too. Overall it was a very nice fancypants dinner.

I thought the card I gave to Matt was pretty amusing: The inside says "Congrats on another year of overlooking the small stuff"

busy times

Matt and I have been pretty busy this month. My adventures started with a trip to the ranch with Mom, Emily, and Susie (aka the crafting group). We had a very fun and relaxing time. The first weekend in June we drove down to Fredericksburg with Rick and Emily to attend Taylor and Alice's wedding. It was at a really neat little winery outside of town. Alice looked amazing in her dress (and the groom looked nervous =P). The winery (Becker Vineyards) is also a lavender farm. The lavender lemonade was very surprising and tasty. Matt and I went straight from Fredericksburg to the ranch to spend Sunday night. Leslie was in Dallas for the weekend for a friend's wedding and so we got to see her at the ranch, which was awesome. The weddings continued the next weekend, this time in College Station for Matt's cousin Danny. To fill out our full June dance card, we have a gathering of the Halls at the ranch this weekend. Aside from Leslie and Bryan (sad face), I think everyone will be there - it should be lots of fun!

Oh yeah, another thing this week that I almost forgot...tomorrow is our four year anniversary. We're having dinner at Stephan Pyles to celebrate.

that is one fuzzy bug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJnn-wMPU9w

good idea Nintendo

So Nintendo has been "updating" Gamecube games for the Wii by adding motion controls. Then they roll out that version for $50, despite the fact that the graphics are still last-gen, in some cases using the Wii-version motion controls is worse than the original controls, and hey - Gamecube discs are playable on the Wii already! So yeah, I'm less than impressed with the whole idea.

But then Nintendo whips this out and it is GREAT! It is exactly what one would hope for when hearing that they are re-releasing GC games for the Wii. They have reworked the first two Metroid Prime games (originally released for GC) and are bundling them with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (a Wii title) for only $50 total. This is particularly exciting for me, since I never bought my own copy of #3.

They’ll be packaged together with the 2007 Wii sequel on a single disc called Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Although we’ll have to wait longer than Japanese consumers for the game, which will be available on August 24, the price tag of only $50 for all three critically-acclaimed sci-fi adventures is a much better deal.

I played the Japanese version of Metroid Prime when it shipped earlier this year, and played Metroid Prime 2 later at Nintendo’s offices. The games have been fully upgraded with all of the bells and whistles that the Wii brings — full motion control and 16:9 widescreen display being the most obvious enhancements.

But there are also some smaller upgrades. The “ball hop” — the ability to make Samus Aran’s Morph Ball form jump in the air with a quick flick of the Wiimote — has been retrofitted into both of the earlier games.

Nintendo said the games also have shorter loading times, and some mildly updated graphical effects like bloom lighting.

Badges — achievements for completing certain game objectives — have also been added in to the GameCube titles. The badges for all three games are combined in one overarching bonus menu, instead of being split up per title. This means that you can unlock the same set of bonus materials (artwork galleries, etc.) no matter which game you play.

The Metroid Prime 3 control scheme is fully replicated in each of the classic games — you can adjust the sensitivity of the cursor and turn on “Lock-On Free Aim” if you want more control over your aiming.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/05/hands-on-metroid-prime-trilogy-brings-entire-series-to-wii/

camping

Matt and I went camping with Emily, Rick, and Luke last weekend at Cleburne State Park. Aside from some major rain, it was lots of fun. Emily and Rick are great camp cooks - they made us some kickass fajitas on Friday night. Matt and I made hot dogs on Saturday...not quite in the same league.

Our major activity on Saturday was a visit to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. It was very cool. The best part was hand-feeding the giraffes. 

In the gift shop, Emily and I staged a dramatic recreation of the experience.

It was extremely cold for May on Saturday. We were huddled around our fire. The intermittent rain through the afternoon didn't help things either. It got down into the 50s that night! But we had a great time and it was an excellent kick-off to the summer.

Advanced Cat Yodeling

This IS Matt!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxLG2wtE7TM

the great game

Matt and I are going to try and go to 1310 The Ticket's "Great Game" tonight in Frisco.

Have I ever mentioned how much Piper loves bed-making? As soon as she hears me shaking out some sheets, she runs in and jumps onto the bed so that I can make her up in it. So cute.

schooool's out for summer

It was weird being a student again this spring, but overall it was a really good thing. It gave me something to do while Matt was at work all the time, and I learned some things too. Plus, it makes me appreciate summer again in the school sense, because I'm taking a break from classes. I do think I'd like to take the other semester of Anatomy & Physiology next fall. Yesterday I went in to take my last test for A&P, got my usual 96%, and closed the book on that class. I also tried to take my psychology final but the testing center was experiencing problems. There was an awesome resolution to that - my teacher e-mailed me and said that since I had done so well all semester, she was just exempting me from the final, so now that class is over too!

I've had some and exciting things going on lately, in addition to wrapping up school. Cousin Lisa took her first trip to Dallas with Miles and Lyla the first week of May. We had a great time for the three days she was here. Piper and Miles became best friends.

He called her "meow meow" and she was the first thing he looked for whenever we walked in the door. On Monday night she'd had enough for a while and hid under furniture and hissed, but the rest of the time she was remarkably calm and collected, and let him chase her around, pet her, and try and catch her tail. Pene showed some maturity too and was allowed around the children with supervision.

Last Wednesday I entertained Emily while Rick was on a work trip to New Mexico. We went indoor rock climbing at Stoneworks in Carrollton. It was a lot of fun. We almost made it to the top of the 100' climb but we both got stalled at the same point maybe ten feet from the top. If we hadn't already climbed that high, we might have had the ability to power through it, but by then our arms were ready to fall off. We each had a fantastic and dramatic fall, which meant the other person got a fantastic and dramatic catch. Another highlight of that day with Em was playing some Castle Crashers on the 360.

Happy birthday, Pene!

Today Miss Pen is two years old. For her birthday, she got a supposedly sturdy red bone squeaky toy (already ripped) and two bones. In the joyous couple hours before she tore up the toy, I got a quick video of her enjoying herself.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YYuHzqzbrQ

great name

I had no idea that the president of the senate of Nigeria's name is Mr Jimmy Bones! Surely I can trust that man with my financial information in order to receive my USD 1.8 MILLION!

35%

I figured out today that if I make my usual 100% on my last chapter test for A&P, I will only need a 35% on the last proctored exam to make an A. It's nice to know that some things never change...my inability to do anything but overachieve in classes continues even in community college classes I'm taking for no reason.

Today was my ESL co-teacher and mentor Satoshi's last day. He's working hard to finish his masters thesis for next month and has a summer job lined up that will most likely keep him away from teaching. I brought donuts and juice to class and was anticipating having a nice laid-back party with the students to celebrate. Well, if I've learned anything these last few months teaching ESL, it's that you can never predict what will happen. I don't know if it was the rain this morning or what, but we had 1 - ONE - student come to class. He said that he thought a lot of the clients had to go to the Catholic Charities (or their refugee service) offices to take care of end of month things, like renewing their food stamps, but for whatever reason...one student. And trust me, this guy was not going to eat 18 donuts. So we shared with the other class and had a really productive day working intensively with our one student, who honestly needed the attention, but again...not what I had in mind. I should know better by now! It's only the days where I've made less than ten copies of class materials that we're overflowing with students!

The donuts were good though. Mmmm, blueberry.

How not to take a sick day

This makes me laugh.

ending Saturday on a good note

Today was a very school-y day for me. I had a project to finish for psychology (about the book Dibs in Search of Self) and a chapter to read, lab to do, and quiz to take in my anatomy & physiology class (covering the special senses). I think I'm about ready for the end of the semester! Luckily that's coming up in a couple weeks.

But at least Matt had a great day - sleeping in and watching the pre-draft coverage, then the NFL draft (yay Matt Stafford, we are so proud!) and the Mavs. Also his parents came by in the afternoon to say hello and drop off a birthday present. Pene couldn't stop licking John's feet.

The end of the day was nice, though, for both of us. We had dinner at the Purple Cow (so great...it reminds us of the Swensons in CS which is no longer there) and watched The Italian Job for the first time. We both really enjoyed it, although we never realized until now how accurate Andy Samberg's SNL impression of Mark Wahlberg really is.

Happy birthday, Matty

Mr. Matt is 27 today. Man we're getting old.

ahhhhh

So nice to have April 15 over with! Matt and I have done some serious relaxing since then and it's been awesome. We did yard work today (good lord was Matt a snotty, sniffling man...ridiculous allergies attacking him).

He actually has to go to work tomorrow, which will hopefully be nice and relaxing. He's thinking about taking every Friday off this summer. Wouldn't that be neat?

next week!

Do you know what starts up again next week? One of the greatest shows ever - Deadliest Catch!

(Also next week that's kind of a big deal - the end of busy season! Huzzah!)

psycho!

I just finished watching the documentary Grizzly Man, and man, Timothy Treadwell was insane. I mean, literally, something was really wrong with that guy.

I <3 April Fools

Oh Trent, you had me at Head Like a Hole...but this...words cannot describe: http://www.nin.com/strobelight/

(placeholder)

Now that my A&P test is over with, I plan on posting about my trip to California. But not now...now I intend to celebrate another 96% with some serious gaming (The Last Remnant).

Oh, and just to explain my previous post (in case you don't regularly visiting my book sidebar), I read Watchmen. It was my first experience with a graphic novel - took me a while to get used to that kind of format. Very different than regular books!

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

travel

I'm quite the traveler this month, compared to my norm...I spent the latter half of last week in Austin, playing with Lisa, Miles, and Lyla and tomorrow I'm off to California!

Aside from the weather, Austin was great. Lisa and I had both had visions of walks, trips to the playground, and things like that, but it was cold and raining the whole time I was there. Sheesh. So we watched lots of TV and movies. I held baby Lyla a lot. It was pretty great. She enjoyed laying on my chest as I reclined, and we spent a lot of time in that position.

I helped give Lyla her first bottle!

Book

(Penny Arcade)

So true...
I have been enjoying many Book lately. I was working my way through a variety of fantasy and non-fiction and got majorly sucked into Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I'd read Into the Wild (and watched the movie) and so I thought I'd give the other book a try. That set off a cascade of Mt. Everest-related books and DVDs in rapid succession. I watched season one (and I am 6/8 through season 2) of Everest: Beyond the Limit by the Discovery Channel, the Everest IMAX movie, and read another couple Everest books. Very quickly. If you need a reason to not climb Mt. Everest, read High Crimes: The Fate of Everest in an Age of Greed. Another book that I thought was great was The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by Elyn R. Saks. It will make you VERY glad that you do not have schizophrenia! It is amazing what she has accomplished in her life despite intense psychotic episodes (example: while having an episode, she thinks she can and has killed thousands of people with her thoughts). It was well-written and very interesting.

I'm going to Austin on Wednesday to spend time with Cousin Lisa and the kiddos - yay!

Correlation

Today's xkcd tickled me.

On mouse-over: Correlation doesn't imply causation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively and gesture furtively while mouthing 'look over there'.

Rosemary

I have decided that Pene's middle name is Rosemary. That is what she always smells like when she spends an evening outside in the backyard. So if Pene does something bad to you and you must chastise her, use her full name: Penelope Rosemary Hall-Roberts.

One of these days I'll tell you about the ESL class for refugees that I'm teaching. One day...(not today, sorry). I blame my infected eyeball (it's on the mend, don't worry. It's just a convenient excuse). Now I'm off to watch another episode of 30 Rock (I'm 2/3 through season 2 and now I get why people love this show).

(don't you love parentheses?)

Astor's Birthday Party

I saw this on Katie's Facebook page, and it was amusing, so I gave it a go...the ones with my favorite answers are highlighted.

1. Put your ipod/zune/mp3 player on shuffle.
2. Answer the questions with whatever song comes up


IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OKAY" YOU SAY?
Embrace (Korn)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Super Mario Bros. Underworld Rock (OverClocked Remix)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Army of One (Phish)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE'S PURPOSE?
Carnival (Tori Amos)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Underwater Secrets (Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Chattanooga Choo Choo (Barry Manilow)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
We Will Rock You (Queen)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Rococo (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Silent in the Morning (Phish)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Wicked Garden (Stone Temple Pilots)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
The Summer (Garth Brooks)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Parachutes (Coldplay)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Nausea (Beck)

WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
I Threw a Brick Through a Window (U2)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Freedom (Blues Traveler)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Marrakesh Express (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Billy the Kid (Aaron Copland)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
These Photographs (Joshua Radin)

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET
Ghost (Trey Anastasio & Tom Marshall)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Sally's Song (Amy Lee)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Bicycle Race (Queen)

WHERE WILL YOU GET MARRIED?
American Bad Ass (Kick Rock)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
User Friendly (Marylin Manson)

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Darts of Pleasure (Franz Ferdinand)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Take Me in Your Arms (The Doobie Brothers)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
When the Water Falls (Collective Soul)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Astor's Birthday Party (from the TV show Dexter)

This is good?

So my A&P instructor was pleased with this breakdown of grades on the test I took yesterday.

The grades were pretty good for the first test.  

A - 12%

B - 26%

C - 18%

D - 18%

F - 26%

...seriously?

I didn't do a very good job of studying for psychology today. I blame Mercedes Lackey.

96%

I overestimated the difficulty of my test. But I still got that warm, fuzzy post-test relief. I'd forgotten how nice it feels to get a test done with a good grade. Ahhhh...

Too bad tomorrow my nose goes back to the grindstone to study for my psychology test on Thursday.

Stafford

It's pretty cool to see big-time ESPN front page coverage about how high in the draft Matthew Stafford will go... Like #1!!

iPhone

I got myself an iPhone yesterday. If anyone has recommendations for applications that they like, I'm all ears!

So I'm taking a couple classes online through the Dallas Community Colleges - psychology and human anatomy/physiology. They've been okay so far...mostly review in the A&P class. I kind of forgot that some people were coming in with just high school science, and here I am with full semesters of anatomy, genetics, microbiology, and physiology under my belt, as well as a year of biochemistry, so that gives me a leg up. I think it'll get interesting once we get to human things that I've never learned before, what with the anatomy I took being canine and all... As for psychology, the last chapter I did was about states of consciousness, and so things are looking up for that class as far as being interesting (the intro chapters were pretty dull). Anyway, I have my first proctored test today in A&P. I have to go down to El Centro's testing center to take it, but that gives me a good excuse to have dinner with Matt near downtown.

Yesterday I got myself plane tickets to visit Leslie in California near the end of March - yay!

Okay, I have to stop playing with my iPhone (this morning's project was making custom ringtones, because I need Matt's ring to be something Phish-related, usually My Sweet One) and get to studying for that pesky test thing!

The Price is Right

If you like The Price is Right, then you should watch this video - if you start 12 minutes in, you'll see my friend Laura from A&M win a car! Congrats Laura!

http://www.cbs.com/daytime/the_price_is_right/video/video.php?cid=559221502&pid=sCBfXvX0KUUBJfZR2OxZBUryyOssvIXN&play=true&cc=0

I'd forgotten...

I'd forgotten how absolutely awful Jake Lloyd is as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I. I decided to throw the DVD in this afternoon, inspired by my recent playthrough of Lego Star Wars. That game got me really hankering for some Star Wars, and it hasn't been so long since my last viewing of the original trilogy, so I figured I'd start at Episode I. Luckily I had my needlepointing to save me from the awfulness of that whole movie (yeah, I remembered the fact that the overall movie sucked, but I'd forgotten how horrible, absolutely bad that kid actor was. No. Redeeming. Qualities. Except maybe the chili bowl haircut)

The movie did make me appreciate the level design of Lego Star Wars, though. They had some great recreations of scenes from the movies, and the music and sound effects really were pulled straight from the movie.

Speaking of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, when last it was mentioned in my comments section, I was having problems with it freezing up. Like total lockdown, get up and press the power button freezing. It started happening consistently with a certain level, and every time I tried to go through it, the problem happened earlier and earlier. I e-mailed the game tech support about it, thinking there was no way they would actually solve my problem. Yeah, they would tell me to make sure my disc wasn't scratched (uh, the answer to that would be no, it's a brand new game that has only been taken out of its case once) and I'd be screwed. Not so! Down into the meat of the reply, they said I should "try clearing the cache. Reset your Xbox, and hold down the A button as the game is booting up. If any button is held while the game is loading, it will clear its hard drive cache, and create a new one. Once you see the game logo, the game is already loaded, and the cache should have been cleared. Note, this does not effect your game in any way other than loading. You will not lose any saved data." So - if you are having this problem with the game on the 360, try that! It worked like a charm! (Although I still think it's pretty crappy programming that causes the problem in the first place, but still...)

I love the Consumerist

I am a huge fan of The Consumerist website. A daily reader. Today this one story really got me laughing...here's a link to the original story cited by consumerist:

When Your Credit Card Signature Fun Backfires
Drunk Republic - Wednesday, 04 February 2009

© Drunk Republic

Hitler's Aggie Football Rant

This got passed around Matt's work today and it is freaking hilarious. And sadly true.

so......

What's new, really? Um...

Christmas was great. Leslie and Bryan were around for a good chunk of time - Christmas Eve until the 28th, and we got to see lots of them, including a ranch visit on Christmas day. We had our traditional duck dinner with my family on Christmas Eve and then hung out afterwards with the Roberts (we showed embarrassing home videos to Rick of his lovely wife in her adorable years). Christmas morning we opened presents first with my family, then with Matt's (and then we roped John into making yummy grilled cheese sandwiches for all of us). Some of my favorite presents were my hanging bike rack and Guitar Hero World Tour and just about everything from Leslie. My favorite present that I gave was a multi-photo frame with a handpicked selection of Murphy pictures spanning his life (including some I found in Mom and Dad's picture stash that I'd never seen before) to Mom and Dad. They hung it in the hallway of their Dallas house with all the other family pictures. :)

Cousin Katie visited for a couple nights starting the day Les and Bryan returned to Cali. We baked some goodies, watched movies and ate pizza, went bowling, and played lots of Guitar Hero. On that Monday night (Dec 29), we went to Sambuca and met Matt's family. His uncle Mark was playing drums with one of his musical groups, so we went and hung out with the extended Roberts clan and had good food and listented to good music. John threatened to make Katie go borrow a saxophone and perform a solo. =P Good that they accepted her as one of their own so quickly with the teasing! Katie got picked up on Tuesday afternoon and that evening Matt and I went over to his parents house for dinner with all the Roberts again. It was the traditional hosting of Aunt Trish and Uncle Neville, in from Denver, so we were spending lots of time assembled together. That culminated with the final Christmas of the season on New Years Eve at Grandma Phyllis' house, where there was loudness and presents and intimate seating arrangements of all the cousins and their significant others on the couch. It was fun.

Matt and I spent a lot of time vegging out after that and recovering from all the events and family. Plus he was savoring the last of his free time, because once he got back to work on the 5th, it was - poof - busy season. We watched plenty of college football and NFL and Netflix galor.

~~~~

So there's phase one of Operation: Update Blog. More to follow.

hey look...

...in my blogging absence I had a baby! Just kidding, this is me holding my brand new cousin Hunter. Awwwww...my family makes cute babies!

Real update soon...or not...maybe tomorrow?

Have I mentioned Lego Star Wars is addictive?

*wave* to 2009

Hello 2009!

A more detailed post is upcoming, but I just wanted to say happy new year to everyone! Matt and I had an awesome holiday and I hope everyone else did too! 

One of the highlights was a visit from cousin Katie (here at the bowling alley, where we both did some ... er ... fantastic bowling)