I'm not dead yet

Although I felt pretty close. The stomach flu marched through the family last week and my turn was around Wednesday. And then the house building project down the street cut through the internet cable so we had no internet from about Thursday through today. That was fun.

The girls are getting into The Legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker. I find it rather amusing personally. The game certainly picked up there for a little bit. Although I suspect vast stretches of what do I do next coming up...

Well, you'd think I'd have something to ramble on about but such isn't really the case. Picked up Vivaldi's The Four Seasons on cd the other day as well as some Yo-Yo Ma. I like the cello. And The Four Seasons ranks up there with my favorite pieces of classical music. Especially the Winter section.

Giddiness sets in

So the company party was today. They held it at Wheeler Farm, so the kids got to milk a cow and take a tractor ride and so on. We had a bit of rain at the beginning, but then things settled down. I must admit, the rain didn't seem to bother me too much as I managed to win a 30GB iPod video. squee!

ahem

Ok, I'm better now. But yeah, totally awesome. Mom was having flashbacks to one of the old company parties we had growing up when my Dad worked at Manville. Back then it was a mini arcade cabinet style Pac Man video game. I will admit that there were probably similarities in the grins I had at either occasion...

At any rate, it was a good day.

Incoming transmission

Ok, so it's been a while, but then again, I've been pretty busy. Dad had to leave early, so we're down to just one house guest. Then it's a week off and then the wife and kids take off for a week. Such a busy time of year.

Had a pretty good weekend although my house is not equipped to handle 17 visitors at once. If it weren't a family event I would have found some way to take off from that mass of people yearning to breathe free... Especially considering the fact that it's starting to get hot out here.

Did a few more chores around the house. Got rid of an accordion door in preparation for putting in hard floors next year. Swapped out the old flat cable from the TV antenna to the TV in favor of coax. Other odds and ends.

Anyway, nothing of real import to pass along. Had dinner at Tepanyaki last night. Had the filet mignon and shrimp. It was like meat butter. So tasty. You'd think I'd have some kid stories to pass along or something but that's not really the case.

Of course, I could start venting about Gibbs quitting NCIS last night, but then I'd get all riled up again.

E3

Well, E3 is in full swing again. The big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo this go around) have had their press conferences. Sounds like it's a toss up between Nintendo and Microsoft as to who had the best conference. I come down on Nintendo's side as the offerings Microsoft had out really don't interest me much. Don't care about Halo 3 or a new GTA game. I am terribly excited to get my hands on the Wii though. Here's a link to some more video footage of some of the games and people playing them.

In other news, we've managed to get the flower beds cleaned up and blooming. And we now own a rather pretty fuschia plant courtesy of the in-laws. An early Father's Day gift I believe. I may try to pass a picture of it along.

And tomorrow is my Friday. Woo hoo!

The folly humor of youth

You can tell your kids are a little excited to see the grandparents when they get up shortly after 6 AM to accomplish said fact. My wife managed to get them to go back to their room for a bit and told them they couldn't come out until 7. A few minutes later they peeked out of their room and asked, "What time is it in your room?" Apparently while it was still before 7 in theirs, ours must lie on the other side of some time zone that would allow them to escape...

Long days

Well, the arrival of family is imminent. My wife's folks this evening and then mine next week. McKenna had her party today. Took some friends to lunch and then went and saw Hoot. Cute show. Won't win any awards, but it was fun. McKenna liked the owls. One of the girls at the party liked the boy. I'll take her interest in the owls thanks...

It's been a long week. Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I got to spend most of it at work. Some higher-up decided that we needed to do an extra run of the main journals database we produce. And as my compatriot was out of town, that meant I had the joyous task of going in late to QA it. Was a truly wonderful experience let me tell you.

Today was free comic book day. The comic book shop down the road apparently closed down sometime this past year. So no free comic books for us. McKenna was rather sad about that. We picked her up a copy of Pikmin 2 for her birthday. It's a pretty fun game. I remember reading somewhere that the guy that created it was inspired by watching his garden. After playing the game a bit I can see the resemblance. It's a pretty interesting game. Cute on the surface, red in tooth and claw a couple layers down. Good ol' Mother Nature. McKenna has enjoyed ordering the Pikmin around.

Anyway, I'm sure there are other things I should go on about, but I can't think of them. So have a great weekend.

Final Fantasy

So Final Fantasy VII Advent Children came out last week. This was pretty much the movie that everyone wanted Spirits Within to be. Not a lot of plot, but a lot of pretty cool fight scenes. The animation technology has improved since then as well. Definitely a pretty movie and certainly some fun bits.

As I came late to the whole console scene, I will have to admit to Final Fantasy VII as probably my first real console RPG. So there is a bit of a special place in my heart for it. McKenna watched most of the movie with us and insisted that I play the game the next day so she could see where the movie came from. That was rather amusing. My wife just rolled her eyes a lot and made sure that I knew that playing VII wasn't allowed to take over playing Tales. Gee, two different family members interested in two RPGs. I'm not entirely certain that some sort of pod person invasion hasn't taken place. That or I've walked into a Talking Heads song...

Finished off The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Great book. I believe I've become a Le Carré fan. After The Tailor of Panama I'll let you know for sure. It's just refreshing to read spy novels that don't revolve around supermen that never make mistakes.

Family coming into town over the next couple weeks. My wife's family this weekend and my folks the weekend after. It's going to be pretty busy around here.

Anyone want to come and mow my lawn for me this summer? Anyone?