July 4th, 2008

Friday morning I got up, rode the e-bike, and after cleaning up I awoke Scott. His mom arrived at 11:15 and the four of us headed out to see Hancock which turned out to be very good with much more of a plot than the trailers on TV would indicate.

For dinner I made burgers with chopped onion in the meat for myself, the X, and Danielle, a plain burger for Chris, and grilled chicken marinated in olive oil, garlic, and basil for Scott. Chris and I topped our burgers with Jalapeno cheddar while the X and Danielle had Velveeta. I also acquired some side dishes (macaroni and potato salads) and made corn on the cob plus a nice salad.

I picked up special beverages, a four pack of Stewart's Root Beer for the kids and the X, and for myself some Jone's Sugar Free Black Cherry soda. Both of these average out to about $1.50 a bottle but it was a special occasion so I figured what the hey!

It was a delicious dinner! The X, Scott, and Danielle headed back to her house, and Chris stayed to watch two episodes of Doctor Who with me. Friends called during so he bolted right afterwards, I was glad just to have his company.

Around 10 PM, green laser point, fireworks, and lights in hand I headed over to the X for the annual fireworks extravaganza. Scott was restless while we were waiting for it to get dark and the X was watching a god awful movie, so he road his bike over to 7-11 to get me a beverage and himself a candy bar. We set off a medium size collection we got, and everyone was mentioning how it would have been nice to have more, so I went and got the even bigger box I had been hiding in the trunk. Christopher, who originally had plans with friends, ended up stopping over with them for the majority of the fireworks second round and a car stopped by the house to watch along with some passers by. We really though the folks in the car should have parked down the road a bit....but hey! It was their car! It was nice that I brought my laser, everyone was suitably impressed that you could see the beam in the evening sky and even more so when they could see the dot at the far end of the development, a good half mile away.

We spent a full hour doing fireworks and I headed home shortly after that. As this was the start of the X's weekend I spent the majority of the weekend indoors doing some chores and playing way, way, way too much Xbox 360! I also enjoyed Tails' company and she enjoyed chasing the laser around the house.

The long weekend......and assorted stuff

It was a long weekend for some anyway; some of my counterparts in the GE world had Monday off, my site in Grand Rapids did not.

The xbox 360 returned home last Friday which was surprising, it only took 12 days from shipment to return. As I expected the replaced it with what appears to be a brand new unit. It has worked flawlessly and the kids are once again playing Rock Band. We've also ordered The Simpson's game which should be here in time for the weekend!

I've been attending management meetings remotely from my home office since Tuesday and the kids have of half days for tests, plus they had Tuesday off as a snow day. So, I've been taking a lunch break each day and making them lunch and spending a bit of time as these meetings run until 5PM each day.

My back was bothering me all of last week and is still a bit stiff, I lunged after Tails (who is doing fine!) and twisted my back.

Other than the weather post, Christopher showed up from college last Friday night as the school was closed Monday. He arrived around 8PM in a t-shirt and the temps were in the 20's. He forgot a coat.......and over the weekend I made him take one of mine as it had dipped down into the single digits.

Over the time he was here he spent the majority with his friends but we managed to sneak in some TV watching together, and one night I made him one of his favorite things to eat; Taylor Ham, Turkey Bacon, Egg, and Cheddar Cheese on a soft roll.

On the TV side with the writers strike not much is first run, though Ugly Betty, Big Shots, Stargate Atlantis, Monk, and Physc are putting out new episodes which are enjoyable. Tonight for the first time since before Christmas Chuck is on with 2 new episodes. I've been finding life in old favorites such as Angel being run from the first episode started a couple of week ago on TNT and King of the Hill something I used to watch once in awhile, I have been watching many episodes, most of which I have never seen.

Not much else going on in this neck of the woods! Can't wait for the warmer weather so I can resume walking using my new wireless FreePulse Headphones for my iPod touch.

Late Christmas Present and Xbox 360 Dies!

This month marks the 2 year anniversary of the procurement of my Panasonic 50" HDTV. Other than the computer I have no true HD sources to connect to it. Dish Network does not offer my local channels in HD and Comcast is just freaking expensive.

While DVD's look very nice, particularly when compared to TV viewing, I still do not have an HD video source....but will next week.

I just ordered a Toshiba HD-A35 DVD player; with all the Amazon gift certificates I had it cost me about $150 out of pocket which is cheaper than the add on drive for the xbox-360 and you get 10 free HD-DVD's with it. A good compromise over the HD-XA2 and much cheaper on the out of pocket side.

Speaking of the xbox, ours died a few days ago with the dreaded "Red Ring of Death" symptom!


Bad News: Warranty expired two weeks ago
Good News: Microsoft has extended the warranty to three years for this issue only!

So, I have a call placed with them and am awaiting the prepaid UPS mailer to return it for replacement or repair which should not cost a cent! Whoo Hooo!