Today was an excellent day! After sleeping in until 9 AM I arose, puttered on the computer a bit and then shoveled snow. This was the third day in a row I decided to forgo use of the snow blower and just shovel for the extra exercise. There were several inches this morning and the snow was a bit heavier than the past two mornings so it took me about an hour.
After cooling down I got Scott up and he, myself and Danielle headed out to lunch and then hit Meijer to get the ingredients for hot wings.
My son Chris and his friend Mike came over around 3 PM, and Danielle and I played Left for Dead 2 with them for almost 2 hours with me taking a break around 4 PM to get the wings prepped and in the oven.
Chris, Mike, and I then alternated playing Earth Defense Force 2017 until the wings were ready. I made 108 wings in three varieties; hot and spicy, Italian garlic, and and new variety from the Chef Chris kitchens; Spicy Asian peanut.
Scott arrived home from the mall and the five of us tucked into wings while watching the latest Family Guy Star Wars spoof Something, Something, Something Dark Side which turned out to be hilarious!
After Family Guy we watched some video off the PC including the Terry Tate Office Linebacker series, Raging Rudolf, and finishing up with an episode of Man Verses Food. Chris and Mike departed around 9 PM. Danielle and I watched A Garfield Christmas, then the three of us Watched an older episode of How I Met Your Mother. Danielle and I then played some Left 4 Dead.
All in all it was a very enjoyable day, and I was quite pleased that Chris and Mike could join us.
On the way home from work yesterday, where I worked a half day from 6:30 AM to 10:30 AM I stopped at Tommy's one of these quick change oil places. The Mustang has been going there since I obtained it and they know me and the car well. In addition to the Oil Change the car needed a new air filter and it was time for the power flush and changing of the fluid in the power steering system. This whole process took about 30 minutes and then the car and I enjoyed a free car wash before stopping at the X's to help her with a computer issue. On the way from her place to mine I stopped at Forest Hills Foods to pickup the ingredients for dinner.
The kids are off this week for spring break and while Danielle has been going to assorted friends houses Scott spent most of the week indoors, partially because many of his friends were out of town for spring break, partially because he is still not feeling the best. His is still having pain in his chest and trouble breathing but it is not as bad as it was a week ago. I hope he continues to improve!
Danielle, who slept over her friend Bob's (a girl!) the night before spent the day on her friends grandparent's farm yesterday. She helped feed the baby goats, watched them milk the goats (she did not wish to experience that!), and then they all made cookies. Danielle named one of the goats Candlesticks which I thought was amusing. She had a good time. Scott went out around 3 PM and Danielle got home around 4:30. As Scott would not be home for dinner I made tortellini with a creamy pesto sauce accompanied by grilled chicken strips. It was quite delicious!
We then spent the remainder of the evening watching TV, computing, and I played some Left 4 Dead. When Scott returned around 9:30 we watched a couple of episodes of The Smpsons off DVD. I retired around midnight.
This morning I arose around 8 AM. It is now 11 and shortly Scott will be woken and we will be heading off to Ming 10 for lunch. It's my last day with the kids and they will be at their Mom's for dinner since this evening is the start of her week. thought taking them out to a nice lunch would be a good end to the week since I have today off.
I have really been enjoying my iPhone. my bluetooth earpiece arrived Wednesday and it is so cool to be anywhere on the first floor of my house and be able to take a call with the phone docked in one of the two bases I have for it. If it is docked in the speaker dock and I ma listening to music when a call comes in the music pauses. I can then pickup the call on the earpiece and when I am done the music resumes from where it paused. The dock in the car will do the same thing, though I have to crawl up under the dash to replace the fuse I blew when I took the panel off the dash to fix the loose cigarette lighter socket that was causing the dock to move left and right whenever I made turns.
The applications for the iPhone (I have about 25) range from the very useful, to fun games, to totally ridiculous items, but it is some good stuff!
After Danielle left with her friend Bob (Bob is a girl by the way) I worked on the computer for a bit and made an excellent lunch; Shrimp Cocktail with some spicy cocktail sauce and fresh lemon drizzled over the shrimp. I chilled the glass in the freezer for an hour before adding the shrimp. This is what it looked like:
For a tastier large picture click the shrimp above!
Lunch was delicious! The shrimp was fresh and very succulent. The drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon juice over the shrimp made a very nice complement to the spicy cocktail sauce. I was very pleased the shrimp was on sale!
Bad news: I was still hungry! Good News: There remained enough shrimp for seconds!
I returned the glass to the freezer, did some e-mail to pass the time away, then I made a second cocktail and enjoyed it greatly.
After the morning's wake up from the place looking for the person whose name of many syllables I had no chance in hell of pronouncing Murphy must not have been done with me. Work called around 2:30 - I was glad both kids were out since I ended up having to run into the office, returning around 4 pM. I spent the remainder of the day on the computer, watching TV (Iron Chef America, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, and Gary Unmarried to name a few) and then around 8 PM Scott called. His sleep over plans had fallen through and he wanted to know if he and a friend could sleep over here. I said yes, Scott arrived, we watched some TV together then his friend arrived. As they descended downstairs to play I enjoyed a campaign of Left 4 Dead before retiring around 1 AM.
After work I decided to be industrious and I installed the custom order sliding shelf into the bottom left double-doored cabinet of the entertainment system. I'll post pictures later on. I wanted to remove the all-in-one printer device out of sight since it did not go with the home entertainment theater motif. AND the printer is white so it really stands out against my black components.
What a pain the install was. The bottom two brackets, which could easily have had metal between them to held them into place did not, so it was a fun experience particularly with having to work inside the back of the cabinet to get the rear screws in place. Lucky me got it right the first time and now the printer is hidden in the cabinet and slides out for easier access if you want to scan something or replace in cartridges. Now I must decide how to fill the empty shelf!
I picked up Danielle around 5 pM and we stopped at her Mom's and picked up her things, fed the Guinea pigs and gave them water, and then I ordered us dinner from First Wok which we picked up and eat while watching Ugly Betty. We then played Left 4 Dead for almost 3 hours on expert setting until Scott arrived home with the friends around 9 PM. I swear I was twitching when we stopped playing!
Danielle and I watched some TV, she and Scott (Who has SAT's this morning) went to bed around 11, while I stayed up until 2 AM or so on the computer.
The past weekend while in the 40's was raining, violently in some cases with very loud thunder.
Danielle had her boyfriend (yes boyfriend!) Jason over....that begs a discussion on the subject of my 14 year old daughter dating.
Evidently her ages definition of dating is someone you spend time with hold hands with but have no other physical contact with, such as hugging, kissing, etc. Sure different from my definition since my X and I would not permit the latter with our daughter only being 14. So, for now she has a boyfriend, who seems very nice and we share some interests in the technology space which is good and playing video games. Danielle has been told that if this progresses any further it will be over......but for now I am content for them to spend time in public places like the mall or in my house or the X's.... As his foster mom will not drive him anywhere on the weekends, I have to transport him him to and from here and the mall and such to his house.
Danielle and I watched The Golden Compass Sunday night when my 17 year old son went to the movies with a 21 year old gal pal......(yes, a 21 year old girl!). I had a bit of a conversation with Scott as to how his girlfriend, who is his age, would feel about this. He said she would be OK with it, I implied he has a lot to learn about women....though she could be one of the rare ones who would be OK with this. I often had issues with the X having lots of male friends at assorted points in our relationship. I pretty much did not worry after we were married.
The kids and I watched a lot of The Critic episodes over the weekend and played Left 4 Dead alone and together.
I spent considerable time making sure all data was moved from my old HTPC to the new one, and I even played some Left 4 Dead on the new PC which sports better graphics than the xbox 360! Whoo Hoo!!
Other than hurting my back tripping on the basement stairs Sunday night when putting kitty to bed, nothing else major went on over the weekend.
Sorry for the lack of posts, been tied up with new system working a couple of issues, so that's been taking most of my free time, or playing Left 4 Dead with the kids, or watching TV with them, and frankly how many times do you really want to read about that???
SO, this past weekend.....normally Scott and Danielle would have gone back to their Mom's house Friday evening but she was traveling so I had them until Saturday. We had planned on watching the new Futurama movie Friday night but Scott had plans with his friends. I picked up Danielle at school after video game club and we stopped at Pizza Hut on the way back home. Scott dislikes Pizza Hut but Danielle and really I enjoy their stuffed crust pizza. and had not had it in ages. I ordered the pizza to go as she did not want to eat in. I returned to the car where Danielle was talking on her phone and we got into an amusing back and forth while she was talking. I returned to the interior of Pizza Hut, nabbed our Pizza and we enjoyed it while watching Ugly Betty. We played some Left 4 Dead and then each spent time on our computers. Scott came home around 10:30 and we watched a couple of The Critic episodes off of DVD before retiring.
Saturday after getting up, riding the exercise bike, and doing some house cleaning, I took Danielle to pick up her friend Jason, and we came back to the house. I ordered us lunch from Jimmy John's, and we settled in to watch watch the new Futurama movie Into the Wild Green Yonder. This is the fourth of four direct to DVD movies planned for the series which was canceled awhile back. There are no definite plans for another but fans can check out the link above for some possibilities going forward.
Saturday was my friend Suresh's 40th birthday so I sent an e-card and an Amazon gift Certificate. Turning 40 is a noteworthy occasion! I used to work with Suresh and the X and I were very close with him and his wife Indu.
A phone call from the road told me the X was close to home, and as I knew she had back pain and was tired from traveling, after Danielle and I dropped Jason off I ordered food from China Garden for the three of them, and picked it up on the way to dropping off Danielle at the X's house.
I spent the remainder of the evening with Tails watching TV and working on the new computer. I had not realized how much data and programs I had to transfer. This is a good opportunity to clean house somewhat so the transfer process may take several weeks of my free time.
Sunday I went out at 8:30 after getting up to shop for dinner. I went to Forest Hills Foods and bought what I needed to make homemade spaghetti sauce with sausage, meatballs, and pepperoni, as well as a loaf of Italian bread and the ingredients to make Garlic Butter.
I made the sauce and meatballs and had everything simmering by 1 PM for a planned dinner time of 5 PM. That also allowed about 4 hours for the garlic butter to pickup the flavors from the fresh garlic and spices I used.
Scott showed up around 3 PM wanting to spend some extra time with me and we played Left 4 Dead on expert level and got all the way the the finale. We failed three times and I had to get cleaned up and finish dinner, but we still had an awesome time, yelling and screaming when failed to get to the end of a level by a hairs breadth. It was a lot of fun.
Dinner was awesome! I had tried a radical variation on my meatball recipe and it was great! I think one or two more tweaks and I will have achieved meatball nirvana! After eating and cleanup the X, Danielle, and I watched Meet Dave which was an awesome movie. I was in bed early at 10 PM as I've been trying to get more sleep lately (though I ended up having a very restless nights sleep for some reason.
Saturday I woke up, expecting snow. The forecast had been screaming for days that Saturday would be this snow and wind filled extreme weather event. At 8AM when I awoke, there was nothing.
I got up, and started the Operating System load on the new HT PC. At 8:30 that was going well, and the snow had started. By 9:30 when I was ready to ride the exercise bike the ground was covered and the wind was blowing. A check of the Weather Channel showed the storm had merely been delayed a few hours. I rode the exercise bike and Danielle got up.
She was a bit distressed because she had wanted me to drive her over to a friends house, pick up the friend, come back here so we could play Left for Dead, and then take the friend home afterward. I told her I was just not going to take the Mustang out onto slippery roads. The visible snowfall was somewhat misleading as this snow was some of the finest flakes I had ever seen, almost powder-like in consistency. So while often looking out the window it appeared it was hardly snowing, the snow accumulated on the ground.
See below for a recap on Saturday's Storm, particularly on road conditions. I feel justified in not venturing out.
The majority of the day passed quite nicely, I did some additional work on the new PC, plus played Left 4 Dead with Danielle and watched TV with and without the kids depending on what they were doing.
We were all supposed to go to dinner with Chris that evening but his friends hijacked him and fed him earlier. The X asked if we wanted to go out anyway and while I would not venture out in the Mustang the X's vehicle is much more bad weather worthy...though I myself would still not have gone out.
I went outside and shoveled out a space large enough for her by the front door so the kids and I would not have snow in our shoes. While there was about 5 inches of snow, it was HEAVY! It was so very fine and thus very dense.
The X picked us up and we went to Ming 10 around 5:30. Surprisingly, with the storm raging outside, the place was very crowded. We had quite a view of the weather outside form our table. Two of the walls forming the Corner of Ming 10 are glass, so you get a real view outside, and it is a raised view as it is on the second floor. As we ate and darkness fell, the storm increased in it's ferocity, and the snow fell more heavily and the wind was blowing faster. I love watching nature like this and I was constantly looking out the window.
Scott was disappointed because they were not making lo mein this evening, they had run out and only had already made vegetable lomein. He still manged to eat a good amount of food, even going after some the vegetable lo mein.
The X outlined some upcoming business travel, which is good for me since it means some extra time with the kids which is always a good thing, I just wonder how they feel about it. I of course agreed to the extra time in support of the X's business pursuits.
We finished dinner and departed, I was chilled just on the very short walk back to the X's car, which was already covered in snow as it if had been sitting there for hours. The ride back home was a little bit slower than the ride out.
She dropped us off at my house around 8 PM and we spent the rest of the evening, together, in pairs, or alone, playing Left 4 Dead, F.E.A.R. 2, talking on the phone, and watching TV. It was still snowing when I went to bed around 11:30.
***
Sunday - I awoke to a very bright room and subsequent examination showed bright sun and blue skies interspersed with fluffy white clouds. There was also quite a lot of snow that had to be removed!
After riding the exercise bike, Danielle and I had fun trying to print out the driving directions to her friend's house. Google Maps was misbehaving. At first I thought it was because I was using the beta of Windows 7, so, I rebooted back into XP and the same thing happened, though Danielle and I got a laugh as when XP loaded a coupon I had queued to print several days ago printed.
Finally after expending almost half an hour I just did a screen grab of the Google page with the directions and the map zoomed on the destination.
I went out and cleared the snow. As Scott's car was there I had to adjust my snow removal strategy as his car was in the way.
Once the snow was clear I stepped into the front hall, switched coats, and Danielle and I, carrying all the empty boxes from the HT PC build slated for the garage. departed.
The roads were well cleared and except for the side roads by her friend's house we had no trouble. The local roads were badly cleared but at least the ground was level so other than slow going we made it OK.
I dropped them off at the mall and headed home, driving through McDonald's around 1:30 to get Scott some lunch, and me a snack, to hold us until what I perceived to be a later dinner. I had given Danielle $20 to spend at the mall, after teasing her about asking for money after I recently bought her the Netbook, so I knew she would at least snack while out.
Scott and I ate and watched a couple of episodes of the Simpsons off DVD before his disappearing downstairs to await the arrival of his friends who showed up and remained as Scott got into his Left for Dead costume. They have been dressing as the four main characters of Left for dead and then delight in freaking people out as they act like the characters in public places. Now note these firends of his are all male, and one of the characters is a female....I refused to look at the friend playing the girl......you would just not understadn why without a picture......
Once again I reminded Scott of my "Have fun but the Police better not call me to come get you!" rule, and his friends headed out. I worked on importing my FireFox, IE, and Roboform data into the new System, copying items from the old system to removable storage, and watching some TV until 4 PM rolled around and it was time to pickup the kids at the mall.
The trip went uneventfully and soon Danielle and I were back home as I raced to get the chicken stock for soup heated so I could add the spices, onions, olive oil, and carrots to the pot tand get it simmering.
I removed the old HT PC from the entertainment system and installed the new one it's place. The old one, for now, resides on the dining room table, connected via WiFi. This is in case I missed some data needed on the new PC. Tails of course jumped into the shelf as I was putting the new (Heavy!) unit into place, and I had to hold it with one arm as I shooed her out of the opening.
Scott arrived home early and we passed the time in the usual manner. After a couple of hours had passed I added the chicken to the soup pot, and after 45 minutes put the soup pasta on to cook in another pot. I drained that, added it to the soup pot and let it sit another 15 minutes. We ate around 7 PM. On Sunday's we eat not later than 5, I was glad I got us a snack earlier.
The soup was delicious and we watched a couple more Simpsons. Danielle and I started watching City of Ember, which turned out to be a really good movie. Bill Murry played the mayor of the forgotten underground city which made it even more enjoyable.
All in all, it was a very good weekend. My only complaint would be that it was too short! There is a half a pot of soup leftover in the fridge which will make a most enjoyable dinner Tuesday night!
What a week! We went from tons of snow and ice on the ground, to a day close to 70, and last night it snowed and there is a couple of inches on the ground again today!
I do not post too much about work, but I received my annual performance review this week and was stunned by getting a rating of "Development Needed". I worked very hard all year, and am formulating a politically correct reply to add as part of the formal review, which includes a statement along the lines of "If I had development needs, why were they not mentioned as impacting my performance and endangering my rating in any of my weekly meetings?" Anyway, the bottom line is I know I worked hard and accomplished a lot this past year! Perhaps this also explains why they are moving me into a new role instead of another managers slot that opened up in my old group after mine was eliminated.
I've also been spending the past few months, on and off, deciding what to do about my Home Theater PC (HTPC). While it is certainly powerful enough for most gaming and playing back of DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray discs, I have been wanting a better video card. Originally I planned to just replace the case, power supply, and video card as the current case and power supply are non-standard and is only 250 watts, which anyone who knows about computers understands there is not a lot of wiggle room for expansion.
So, a many month, on and off, journey began as I researched the best way to do this. The cost of a good case, power supply, and video card I wanted was close to $600 and change. I decided that at this point in time I did not want to spend the money. Then, I sold my previous HTPC, my Onkyo Receiver, and some speakers to a friend. That brought some extra dollars in along with the fact I am getting a good tax refund, my son is going to pay me almost half the car payment money he has owed me for several years, and it turns out I am going to get a small inheritance from my Dad's estate now that all the bills are paid.
So, I spent the last two weeks feverishly researching in my free time and yesterday finally placed the order for all the parts for a brand new HTPC. For double the price of the parts upgrade I can get a whole new very powerful system that has room to grow going forward, which the current system does not, and would not if I kept the same motherboard.
Last night I went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday with the X, So, and Danielle, we had a nice dinner, though it took them three times to bring me some fries that were fresh. When I go out I will not eat fries unless they are hot and crisp! I rarely get fries, and when I do this is the condition they must be in! So, when mine arrived and had obviously been sitting under the warming lamp, I asked for fresh ones. A new order was brought out that was even worse! A quick word to the manager soon had a large order of hot, crispy fries, and everyone else, particularly the X, was willing to save me some carbs by eating a lot of the fries.
Afterwards arriving home, Tails and I watched TV, and I played some Left 4 Dead on expert settings which is always a hoot! I retired around 1 AM looking forward to the weekend and no having to get up early for work.
They were correct. We did break the record for the warmest day for February 10th yesterday! It was 68 here and 50's today though by later this evening it will be below freezing overnight again and snow is forecast on and off next couple of days
At least all the snow on the roof and ice as well is gone and the driveway is clear too!
It was a glorious day yesterday! I turned off the heat, opened all the windows, and aired out the entire house.
Tails was quite pleased to have the rear sliders open so she could spend hours there laid out comfortable while watching the great outdoors.
I made the kids some Velveeta Shells and Cheese dinner and I had some South Beach Diet wraps which were surprisingly good.
Of course Danielle and I played Left 4 Dead and then Scott joined us to watch the two new Scrubs episodes.
Friday - As I had beat my weight loss target by one pound (trying to loose 2 pounds a week) I kept my promise to the kids and we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Scott met us there with his girlfriend Andi and we all had a nice time. I thought it was cute the way Andi was squeamish as Scott showed her how he eats, even to the point of playing with the fat from his Prime Rib at the end of the meal.
Hey! How many of YOU grew up with your parents taking you out for Prime Rib? That did not happen in my family, I tell you what!
Saturday I was awoken by Scott at 6:55 who was supposed to be heading out to take his SATs. Despite being reminded he forgot his graphing calculator at school so he could not take the test. I was so aggravated I could not go back to sleep and ended up getting up on one of my precious days to sleep late!
Note much else stands out about the day, Danielle and I played some left for Dead before Scott left for work, and when he came home around 8:30 that evening I took him to Taco Bell for some Tacos.
I had the first dream I could remember since earlier in the week; this time I was in a large mall, and a Tank zombie from Left 4 Dead began rampaging through the store I was in. Suddenly I had a shotgun in my hands and was doing battle. Upon awakening I once again reflected if perhaps I was playing too much of this game!
Sunday - I got to sleep in until almost 9 AM! For me, that is just wasting the day away! I got up, did the exercise bike after releasing Tails, and then headed down to Forest Hills Foods to pickup the ingredients for homemade chicken soup, plus some other items we needed.
Returning home I got the soup started and alternated playing Left 4 Dead with watching TV. The X, having just drove back from the airport in Detroit, joined us for soup at 3:30,. Everyone loved the soup and after we ate I spent a bit of time with the X showing her a couple of things on the computer, including Roboform which is an excellent product that accelerates form entry in your web browser. At 4:30 Scott left for Work, the X departed to drive Danielle to pickup her friend Julia while I cleaned up from dinner and took a shower.
Danielle and her friend arrived and other than making Ramon for Julia I saw little of them, so again alternating between the game and TV passed quickly until Julia was picked up at 8:30 followed by Scott returning home. We watched new episodes of The Simpsons and American Dad, with a repeat of Family Guy sandwiched in between them.
I had meant to head to bed early a bit after 10:30 but after both kids went to bed I feel asleep watching TV after I fed the kitty. When I awoke around midnight I headed off to bed.
This evening will be left over chicken soup which is always delicious!
Note - I just realized I never published this post from LAST Monday. maybe I should call this Stupid Times Three!
I had the day off because of Martin Luther King day. I had asked the kids to be quiet when they got up, and they were not, in fact they were noisier than most mornings, so loud so I heard them outside in the driveway when they left.
Tails must have heard me get up to use the bathroom when the kids woke me and soon she was scratching at my bedroom door. I let her in, she promptly crawled under the covers and curled up next to me, and we a 30 minute nap or so.
I realized this morning that perhaps I have been playing too much Left 4 Dead (or maybe not enough?) because for the first time since playing this game heavily since last year I dreamed I was in a zombie infested neighborhood, running around with an assault shotgun shooting zombies with other survivors!
I got up, did some computing, and rode the exercise bike while watching a Dinner: Impossible where Chef Robert had to make 7000 items overnight. I did some laundry and some cleaning up, and around 2 PM I decided to head out to the store to get items for dinner for the next few evenings.
The snow plow had left a pile of debris at the bottom of my driveway (here's where the stupid part comes on) and looking at it I figured it was small enough to back out over and I would worry about cleaning it up later.
Needless to say I had seriously miscalculated the amount of ice and snow thus managing to mire the Mustang helplessly in this mess, unable to move forward or backwards. Cursing my own stupidity I went and got the snow blower.
Luckily I had enough on each side of the car to attack the snow with the snow blower. I also did behind it as close as I could get to the car.
THEN came the fun part, getting the small portable shovel and digging out behind the back wheels, as they were already over the slight downward slope into the street. When you have a bad back and a short shovel this can be quite fun! I also realized I had taken this out of the garage and it should be in my trunk.
About 20 minutes later I was able to back into the street and pull back into the driveway. I went to start up the snow blower and it would not start! (Here's where the times two factor appears) I pulled the cord until I was blue in the face! I wheeled the snow blower back to the garage and connected the AC power cord to it and pressed the electric start button/ While it turned over readily it would not start.
THEN I remembered the Run switch had not been turned back on!!! So, again cursing my stupidity I got it running and cleared the driveway.
Able to do my shopping, I did so and returned home. After getting cleaned up I put away the groceries. Scott went straight from school to work so Danielle and I played Left 4 Dead until 6 PM when I stopped and made us grilled ham and cheese sandwiches on whole grain high fiber bread with 2% and healthy choice ham. I also supplemented mine with a cup of Southwest Vegetable soup as I had Given Danielle twice the meat on her sandwiches. It was a cheap yet delicious meal.
Scott returned home from work around 8:30 and I made him some Kraft Shells with Cheese and the three of us watched How I Met Your Mother and Worst Week before retiring.
I slept in, not getting up until about 8 AM. The sky was gray and the forecast....can you guess? SNOW!
The outside temperature was 1 degree above zero, so much for last nights weather report saying we would not go below 6 degrees, it must have slipped below zero overnight.
I released Tails from her room, took my medicines, and worked on installing the XBOX 360 transceiver unit on my HTPC. This handy device allows you to use wireless XBOX 360 controllers (and other accessories) on the PC, and some games just need that capability.
That done I settled in checking that the new black wireless controller I bought (which is to be dedicated solely to use on the PC) was working.
I caught up on the past week of blog posts and I'm going to test Left 4 Dead on the PC since I picked that version up on sale over the holidays. This was because the PC version of any good game is infinitely more extensible by the user community which creates new maps and levels far more often (and for free) verses downloadable additional content for the XBOX 360 via XBOX Live.
Following that I plan on a yummy yogurt shake and a ride on the exercise bike. As it is now snowing heavily and I have supplies enough for the day, I have NO plans of journeying outside, though in the past 2 hours it has warmed up to 4 degrees!
I ended up testing the XBOX wireless controller on the PC by playing a campaign of Left 4 Dead. It works great it is so cool being able to use the wireless controllers from the XBOX on the HTPC! Now it's time for the shake and then the ride on the exercise bike....it Tails will get off my chest that is.........
With it still snowing and nowhere to go I installed a beta version of Windows 7 on my PC and spent the day testing. While not allowed to go into specifics all I can say it is is FANTASTIC! Microsoft has a real winner here! Everyone should plan on buying this for their PCs!!
I spent a good portion of the remainder of the day and evening beta testing Windows 7, playing Left 4 Dead, and watching a little TV.
It was still snowing when I went to bed around 1 AM.
It's been a hectic week. I had been creating posts daily and saving them for when I had time, but between sick kids, work, snow, more snow, I never had a chance to post it, so here is the past week in review.
Sunday 1/11/2009 Sunday..........Saturday night Scott had asked if he could have friends over to play Left 4 Dead. I arose early enough to clean the kitchen, living room, dining room, ride the exercise bike, and get cleaned up. Two of Scott's friends arrived around 12:30 PM bringing with them an additional copy of Left 4 Dead which was used in the XBOX 360 in the family room.
Scott, Danielle, and I stayed up in the living room using the XBOX there while his two friends played in the family room downstairs giving us our own four player game. For the next five and a half hours severe insanity resulted as we played on the Expert setting trying to finish the No Mercy campaign. Scott wanted an award that you got for completing any campaign on the Expert setting which is next to impossible as we found out. From time to time I handed my controller to Danielle and let her play a bit since she enjoys the game too. Scott was constantly yelling commands down to his friends and they were yelling other things back. It was most amusing and fun to be a part of their game.
Around 2:30 we took a pizza break as I had ordered cheese pizza, bread sticks, and antipasto from Vitale's. After chowing down the gaming continued amidst much yelling, screaming, and amplified sound thanks to the surround system in the living room.
Scott and one of his friends got the award while the other and myself died moments before the rescue, thus robbing us of the achievement!
A bit after 6 PM the friends departed and we settled in to enjoy the rest of the evening, enjoying some left over chicken soup which I had made Saturday night.
Of course it started snowing again and around 8 PM I get a call from the X who has been sick for several days now. My older son Christopher was supposed to be heading back to college and his car would not start, so, she wanted to know if I could follow the tow truck down to the car repair place since AAA towing has a policy stating they can't just drop a car there without the owner being there to insure it is safely locked if the business is closed.
The roads were in bad shape but we made the trip to and from there with no incidents and I returned home to relax for the rest of the evening.
Monday 1/12/2009 Danielle was so dizzy and had such a bad headache she stayed home from school. Scott had a major sore throat, headache and was all congested so he stayed home as well. I wonder if he caught the bug his Mom had Saturday night when he went to her house to try jump-starting Christopher's car.
Since both kids were home and feeling so bad I opted to work from home so I could take care of them when they got up. I took a lunch break and rode the exercise bike around 11:30 AM and afterward as both kids were up I made them some quick pancakes for lunch before returning to work.
After work hours were over I snow blowed the driveway and headed off to Forest Hills Foods for some provisioning, and no sooner after arriving home and getting out of my wet clothes the phone rang, the X wanting to know if I could take Christopher to pickup his car, which I did, after suiting back up for the cold. Timing is everything!
Arriving back home I watched some TV with Scott and Danielle, and then made Kraft Velveeta Shells and Cheese for dinner which they really love. Everyone was in bed at 10:30 PM, and looking outside my window before I retired I saw the snow was once again falling down.......
Tuesday 1/13/2009 It never ceases to amaze me the way they decide if the schools should be closed. Close to half a foot of snow fell last night and it was still falling when I got up. School was not canceled and there was not even a two hour delay! There have been other mornings where the roads were not half this bad and school has been delayed! Making sure Danielle and Scott were up and able to go to school I headed out, clearing off Scott's car and a path to it before departing.
Enjoying a haphazard ride to work because the roads were terrible, I managed to arrive In one piece and began preparing for my first meeting of the day. My phone rings and it is Danielle informing me Scott's car won't turn over! Timing is everything!!
I headed out onto roads that were already worse in condition then my trip into work. I got home and picked up the kids, heading slowly and carefully to their school. I did not just want to jump start Scott and send him on his way because i was 99% sure he needs a new battery and I did not want him to be stranded at school later.
The traffic was terrible and there was a huge line of cars waiting to turn left on a hill at one point. Of course the Mustang does not like hills in the snow....but we managed to get up it, and I dropped the kids off at school about 10 minutes past the start of their first class.
I headed home figuring I could join the meeting I was already late for from my house. This would get me into the call and webex a good 20 minutes sooner than if I went all the way back to work. I was that thrilled on the prospect of that since the roads were really bad now and it was still snowing.
At one point while not driving too fast and while being careful, coming out of a turn I slid into the oncoming traffic on one of the larger roads. The Powers That Be were in my camp as I missed colliding with anything and was able to come out of the slide and quickly get back on the right side of the road, though I was quite shaken!
I joined my meeting about 15 minutes late, and during a break in meetings at 11 AM I went out, chiseled open the ice and snow encrusted hood of Scott's 98 Plymouth Breeze, and managed to get the charger on it. THUNK! said the meter of the charger as it pinged on the 12 AMP draw mark of the meter!
During my lunch break at noon I rode the exercise bike and then called Costco to see if they have a battery for Scott's car; they do, so we will be heading over there around 3:30 PM.
I went out and snow blowed around 3 PM, and I also started Scott's car and ran it long enough to heat it up and melt the ice on the windows and wind shield. After Scott and Danielle got in from school we headed out. The sun was shining (quite the contrast to the stormy start of the day) and the temperature was barely 20 degrees.
When I called Costco I neglected to ask the $20 question, "Do you install car batteries", the answer to this was "No". Scott's car has a very weird battery mount and you actually need to take off the front tire on the drivers side of the car to replace the battery. Due to the cold weather and lack of heated garage I chose to opt out on doing this myself.
We went down to Sears where they do install the battery and after selecting the sensibly priced battery with the 3 year warranty we headed off to dinner. Since there were people in front of us and it was going to take at least 90 minutes for his car to be done, we had dinner at Red Robin and then did some shopping at the mall. We got Scott's car and he headed back to my house while Danielle and I stopped at Steak and Shake to get the X some dinner since she was still sick. We dropped that at her house and were back home by 7, We then watches Run, Fat Boy, Run which was most enjoyable. It's a story of Boy meets girl, gets her pregnant, abandons her at the alter, and five years later tries to get her back. This was followed by two new episodes of Scrubs.
Wednesday 1/14/2009 The overnight temperature according to the weather report was -4 in my area. A couple of inches of snow fell, as it is so powdery and fluffy because of the cold I left it where it is figuring the wind may take care of most of it!
In retrospect I hear in Minnesota the temperature in some spots hit -44, so, while my weather may feel cold to me and alarm my friend David on the West Coast, I can put the cold here in greater perspective, but, really one must wonder what kind of person lives in an area that gets that cold!?? I'm having enough trouble with the few degrees below zero and single digit temperatures.
After work the kids and I played some Left 4 Dead, while Scott and Danielle finished up after Danielle and I had played I made a quick pot of pre-packaged Ramon soup for us, omitting some of the supplied (high! Repeat HIGH! in sodium) spice packets with my own salt free mixture. I also added about a pound of frozen boneless skinless check breast meat.
We enjoyed that, and a bit later we watched the new Futurama episode Bender's Game which was excellent. Lord of the Rings fans will not want to miss the parody of that epic saga that is done by the Futurama characters!
Scott and I played a little more Left for Dead after the movie while Danielle talked on the phone, and then we all retired.
Thursday 1/15/2009 A Balmy -1 degree temperature overnight, it was warming nicely and was about 4 degrees when I left the house.
After work Scott came home and wanted to watch an episode of The Simpsons before he went to work which we did. I also loaned him my heavy ski gloves since it was only 5 degrees out and his job has him outside a fair portion of his 4 hour shift. He departed for work and Danielle and I played a campaign of Left 4 Dead before heading over to Meijer to pick up some supplies. Forest Hills Food does not have the fat free powdered Cheddar cheese we like to use on popcorn or the dry cat food and treats that Tails likes. Danielle also wanted a CD by The Fray for the song she and her friend were going to sing in the talent show, but they did not have it.
We stopped at Wendy's for dinner and then headed home. Scott got home around 8:30 with an order of lo mein for himself and the three of us watched Worst Week which is an excellent comedy series. I ordered the CD Danielle had wanted off of Amazon and then Scott I played a campaign of Left 4 Dead after which we all retired.
Friday 1/16/2009 Danielle was knocking on my bathroom door early this AM as I was getting ready for work, evidently she needed some 'supplies' from her Mom's house since she ran out at mine. As the local store was still closed we had no choice.
Because of the -2 temperature and the ice crystals in the air a rare treat for the eyes awaited us; all light sources were reflecting straight up! It was most spectacular and I sight I've only seen once or twice before!
I waited in the car while Danielle went into her Mom's house and then we headed back to my place where I finished getting dressed (imagine my state of undress in this cold weather if you will because we had to rush to get back home in time for her to ride to school with her brother!) and I headed off to work.
The weather says a warming trend is upon us. It will not drop below zero this night but stay nice and toasty at 6 above, with temps in the teens tomorrow, and 30 by Sunday! Break out the Sandals and shorts my friends!
After work, I went home and relaxed a bit, watching some TV and puttering about on the computer. Danielle had gone to a friends right after school and would be dropped off at her Moms since it is the start of the X's week.
Scott arrived home around 5:15 PM upset because he did not get a document signed for work at school. Periodically he has to have the school certify that he is attending school regularly. He can be dismissed if he does not have it done. Of course, he could have easily done this...but you know how teenagers are. I am thinking if he explains he simply forgot they will give him a chance Monday at worst case not let him work this weekend.
Scot and I watched an episode of The Simpsons and I made sliders (mini cheeseburgers) for my dinner using lean ground beef and 2% cheddar cheese slices. They were very good.
The X called at 6:30 because I had told her Danielle was getting dropped off around dinner time (so I thought Danielle had said). I had also told Danielle to tell her Mom where she was going and details since she would be in her Mom's custody that evening.
Well, 7:30 PM and Danielle was not answering her cell (it was obviously off since it was going straight to voice mail) and we could no find the current school directory at either house (evidenced at my residence by drawers hastily dumped on the floor to reveal contents, etc.) and we did not have a home phone number for her friend in this age of cell phones.
I was able to find a Google maps printout from the first time I took Danielle to her friends house (I stand by my philosophy of not throwing things out! It's not laziness! It's forward planning!) and giving the address to the X she was able to gt a hold of Danielle by looking up the phone number based on the address.
Danielle's phone was low on battery so she had turned it off in direct violation of the "You've got a cell phone whose primary purpose is for communicating with Mom and Dad!" accord of 2008. The X and I were steamed and I suggested we remove text messaging from Danielle's phone since that's all she does with every free moment, even walking down the snow packed street one day in front of my house!
Suggested removing I say because the phone is on the X's service. It it was my service texting would be gone already.
Anyway, Danielle located, I tried to settle down for the remainder of the evening enjoying some TV and time on the computer, which I re-partitioned in preparation for installation of Windows 7.
Bed was not until 1 AM as I decided around midnight to pickup the mess my earlier search had done, and do a sink load of dirty dishes since the kids were gone and it would not fill up again with just myself at home.
Friday was the first day back to work for the New Year. Lots of people had taken the day off so it was relatively quiet on the work front. I was pleased to head home though at 3 PM.
Danielle arrived around 4:30 PM and we watched some TV and, can you guess it, played some Left 4 Dead.
Scott called a bit before 6 and asked if he could come over with a couple of friends, I said fine so long as they did not expect dinner as Scott has opted out on that earlier, supposedly he was not supposed to be at my house till 8 PM or later.
I ordered Vitale's, Danielle having spaghetti and meatballs, and I having Chicken Parmesan. Since Scott was not eating with us we got cheesey bread sticks as Scott does not like them so we rarely order them.
Food was good, the evening was spent watching TV and playing Left 4 Dead culminated by Scott trying to finish the Dead Air champagne as he was trying for one of the many achievements. Try as he and his sister, and I myself a couple of times, did, he could not survive the final battle with the skill level set on Advanced. Around 12:30 AM I announced a halt to the festivities and we all headed to bed.
Saturday - I arose around 8 AM, rode the exercise bike, and busied myself on the computer. After both kids got up and we played some left for dead, I took them to First Wok for Lunch, Danielle and I having the luncheon special and Scott the usual chicken lo mien without vegetables.
After lunch we came and watched the new animated Resident Evil Degeneration movie. We all enjoyed it, and we all got a real kick out of the 'bloopers' where they took scenes from the movie and recorded funny dialog instead of the original content.
The kids left a little after 3 PM and I spent the rest of the day working on the installation of my new AV receiver (there will be a post about that when I have time.
Around 8 PM Scott called and wanted to know if he and Alex could come over here. Alex was sleeping over at his mom's but Christopher was there so they could not use his xbox. I said sure and they were here from 8:30-11:30 PM before heading out.
Sunday morning after riding the exercise bike I looked out the front door. The driveway was entirely covered by a sheet of ice! Conditions must have been perfect last night for this to occur. The street too was encased in a frosty covering of slick ice! I was glad that I had no plans of going anywhere just yet!
I finished the setup of the new receiver and programmed my multifunction remote. Finally around 2 PM I noticed the driveway has melted, and I headed off to Forest Hills Foods to pickup some supplies.
I came home and started cleaning up some of the mess caused by the install of the new receiver. After wrenching my back picking up the old receiver to box and store it, took it easy the rest of the day watching TV and such, with Tails for company.
More cleaning, organizing, got the DVDs entered manually that needed to be, all are now on shelves. The two big boxes have been unpacked.
Danielle will be over in about 45 minutes, I am sure she will want to play Left 4 Dead, so, I must get in as much additional cleaning as I can before she arrives!
Oh! The snow blower was delivered about and hour or so ago, I filled it with gas, checked the oil, and test ran it for a few minutes, works fine, can't wait to see how it will do with some major snow later.
It was about 12 degrees here this morning when I got up for work. Single digits overnight.
It is 25 right now. By midnight the snow is forecast to start, by the time it ends tomorrow they are saying 6-12 inches - we shall see what happens!
We had three inches yesterday morning...fun times here, a couple of days with the roads ice covered and the temperatures so cold the ice on the streets would not melt it....
The extended forecast shows snow in some form or another through next Wednesday!
On another note, Scott and Danielle had their Christmas Concert (both are in Choir), so, I took the cowards way out and ordered from Vitale's our favorite Italian place that provides delivery. Danielle and I, and later Scott and I, got to play some Left 4 Dead together before they had to get dressed for the concert. We also watched some TV afterward.
First the first time in I don't know how long (a couple of years at least!), Danielle wore a skirt! I took a picture of the two of them, I'll try and remember to post that with another picture I have in mind regarding an event this past Tuesday.
More spine-tingling excitement from the Falco clan!
The major fun Saturday was the washing of the kids bed linens and pillows, 7 loads of wash required for this and it ran for a good part of the day. LOADS of fun...pun intended!
I also went online and did all my Christmas shopping for the three kids, and all this via Amazon.com. Being a member of their prime service is certainly worth it, particularly around the holidays. All 2 day shipping is free, and overnight shipping upgrades are available for $3.99.
Sunday I took the kids to the mall, making them get up early, so we could be there for the 10 AM opening. This is the fourth year I have done 99% of all my Christmas shopping on line. This year due to financial constraints I won't go into here, only family, I am very sad to say, will be getting presents. (Note though in my spirit of giving I am happy to take your presents!) So anyway, unlike their Dad, the kids still need to have a trip out to procure some or most of their items.
So, I had no problem with this, but did not want to have to deal with crowds just so they could sleep in as is their habit. So, Danielle was awakened at 8:45 (her choice so she could straighten her hair) and Scott around 9:00, so we could be out of the house on time.
Scott still groused a bit about the early wake up call, adding that people would still be in church at 10 AM, but I hate crowds at the mall, and having to wait in line to pay for purchases, so, we went. We arrived about 10 minutes before the stores opened so we used the time to part and walk to the first store we would be shopping at.
The mall was indeed not crowded at all, I don't know if this was due to people being at church, the economic state of things, a combination of the two, but for whatever reasons we got in and out rather quickly, even having time to stop for a pretzel at Auntie Em's before heading out. Total time in the mall was less than two hours!
Sunday the weather warmed up and the temperature rose into the low 40's. It has also risen to about 35 on Saturday. While the driveway pretty much lost the inch of ice it had the roof only shed about half of it's icy covering.
I made homemade chicken soup for dinner Sunday, timing it to be ready after Scott's friend Alex had departed, and because the X had been sick for a couple of days, I made her a container and ran it over to her. She was most pleased, and Scott tells me she had the second serving for lunch on Monday. Scott, Danielle, and I had it for dinner last night too. It was delicious!
I had Monday off of work for personal reasons I won't go into, but I did go out and do the majority of the staple shopping for Christmas dinner. Since I painted myself into a corner I will be making Lasagna and Turkey for 10 people, I think I am going to make the Lasagna Christmas Eve day or there is no way I can pull this off, particularly with my small stove! I planned on getting the turkey too, but I wanted a Butterball, and the only ones that had were either too small or too big.
Danielle and I watched the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, and I was quite surprised how much better this was than I had anticipated. We did not go to see it, and I am very pleased we watched it. Great viewing for kids of all ages, particularly older ones like myself who remember the cartoons and Christmas albums. Note the link above takes you to a history of the Chipmunks but has links to the cartoons and movie.
Danielle continued to impress me with her video gaming. She and I have moved from Easy to Moderate difficulty on Left 4 Dead and have been having great fun over the weekend and last night playing it.
Monday night I went to bed with the thought of much snow and bad conditions in store for Tuesday morning based on the media slathering based on cold temperatures and and an approaching storm from the gulf of Mexico in addition to lake effect snow.
Well, the temperatures rose overnight to a good 5 degrees above freezing so the majority of what fell was rain on top of the snow. Travel was a bit hazardous but nothing major.
Then they predicted that by sun down the temperatures would plummet and the snow would continue all night for large accumulations. Wrong again! The temps fell (Nice sheet of ice under the snow in my driveway I discovered this morning!) but the snow only amounted to another 2-3 inches by me. This morning's ride once I got out of my driveway and off my street was better than yesterday's.
The sun is actually out now, rare to be seen in West Michigan winter, though through Friday evening the temps will stay in the 20's. Saturday and Sunday will warm into the low 40's which will be a nice break.
On the non-weather front work has been very challenging since an event I will not discuss here happened last Friday. It has been super ultra stressful, but, what can you do?
Scott and I played an hour of Left 4 Dead last night and had a good time, plus Danielle joined us to watch a couple of Scrubs re-runs, and How I Met Your Mother. Another quiet evening and as it was my dinner night of the X's week the kids stayed until about 7:30 when they headed to the X's house because of the snow.
I watched TV and also played some Left 4 Day solo with computer generated team mates.
Today they had an international fair at Scott and Danielle's high school. Scott, just turned 17 on Saturday, is in his second year of learning Japanese. So last night we had fun making 60 rice balls with seasoning wrapped in seaweed. It required four batches of sushi rice (which is harder to make than regular rice!) The first batch was completed by 4:30 and the last by 10:30 PM.
Working around this at the dinner hour I also made the kids homemade French toast with real vanilla and I had an Egg Beaters omelet with turkey bacon. Danielle enjoyed turkey bacon on the side.
This morning we all had fun carrying all the dishes of these (they have to be in a single layer, not touching) out to my sons car. Needless to say he arrived home from school with rock hard rice encrusted dishes in hand which are now soaking in the sink. Superglue has nothing on the holding strength of dried sushi rice!
It was nice, my daughter pitched in to help too which was nice, and of course I got to do all the cleanup duty in between batches of rice and from dinner.
I also managed to play a bit of the Left 4 Dead video game with Scott supplying me with helpful tips. It's more fun when we play together but he came in on me about 80% way through a chapter in this series we play together. My daughter and I watched the second part of this weeks 2 part Heroes episode. And I made them my infamous French toast (made with heavy cream and real vanilla) for dinner with me having a nice healthy egg beaters omelet with turkey bacon.
All in all, a decent evening in spite of the incredibly stress filled day of work yesterday (and then again today). Sigh!
On the weather front, it is 24 degrees outside and the forecast for the next 8 days is "Chance of snow"......again I say sigh!
My street was so icy this morning! (How icy was it??) It was so icy that when I approached the corner at idle speed of the car, I still almost slid out into the intersection at the red light! This was after have to spend 15 minutes using my little portable pump to inflate the right rear tire which was almost flat (an anomaly perhaps? The tire was at full pressure after work today) which should have given me an indication of the day yet to come. Dare I say sigh again....no....I will use some self control and save it for tomorrow!!
