"Super Bowl 41" Weekend Writeup
In which we cook food, rock out with Guitar Hero, and create wedding registries. The sequel to last year's Super Bowl visit.
Thursday, February 1, 2007 - "You snuck up!"
Left home at 11:45, my truck full of boxes and STUFF. Roads were dry, traffic was clear, precipitation was nil. Got to Aldi around 5, called Mom, and waited about half an hour for boy to arrive. (He snuck in from behind. >_> )
We did our grocery shopping, then went to the house and unloaded my truck, with everything initially going in one of two staging areas (kitchen stuff in the kitchen, everything else in the middle of the living room). I went upstairs and showered while he cooked dinner (taco casserole thing). After dinner we started taking my stuff upstairs and... I don't know, maybe a little Guitar Hero 2? I forget. Oh, we exchanged Valentine's Day cards.
---
Friday, February 2, 2007 - "...and it stopped snow--BAMF"
Dressed in my ALCS 2006 Tigers shirt, had mushroom-stuffed tortellini for lunch, then went to the north end. Dropped off my ring to get it resized, not to be picked up for another two days.
Then to Fry's. It was snowing and cloudy on our way in. We played the Guitar Hero 2 demo unit for a while, thus beginning a string of several days in which I couldn't get the guitar part for "Strutter" out of my head. He bought a DVD, and we wandered through appliances and decided a bunch of things we didn't want to register for (coffeemaker, toaster, bread machine) and a couple things we did want (printer, George Foreman grill).
When we were on our way out of the store, I saw through the window that the weather looked much nicer. As we headed for the automatic doors, I remarked, "Look, it's sunny now, and it stopped snow-- BAMF"
"BAMF" marks the point where the doors opened and we got hit with a hard blast of wind that actually staggered me back for a second. ^_^;
Once we were back to the south end, we went to Best Buy and split the cost of Phoenix Wright 2 as our Valentine's Day present. <3 No action figures this year. ^_~
The game is good so far, and the translation and (especially) localization are fairly good, and someone in that department has a firm grasp on American pop culture, as proven by stuff like "West Clownadelphia" and "This one time at lawyer camp...". However, it's typo-rich, full of all the problems spell-check would never catch - I've actually found myself wincing and groaning aloud at this stuff. PW1 had maybe one or two problems per case for cases 1-4, with case 5 being a little worse than the other four combined... but PW2's is terrible in this regard - there's something literally every couple of screens, and it seems to be getting worse as the game progresses, and considerably more annoying than even PW1 case 5 was. Mostly its/it's and the like, but still very painful in such a text-heavy game.
[Edit: CASE 3 HAS A MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL AFTER THE LAST SCENE :D ]
Got home and unpacked more of my stuff - set books aside in the spare room, combined our DVD collections, got some stuff ready to trade in at Half-Price books, studied our game collections and decided what to sell on eBay (all proceeds going toward our eventual PS3 purchase).
Then launching hardcore into GH2. Over the course of the whole visit we made some good progress: I single-handedly five-starred all of Easy in one attempt per song, with seven of the twenty-eight being perfect error-free attempts; we five-starred some more stuff on Medium (including my first 100%, on "Cherry Pie"); we got a few more tiers into Hard mode, enough to unlock "Cherry Pie" there too, my new "Ziggy Stardust" and "Killer Queen" - the song I handle with ease and finesse and do really well even on Hard mode. (My other GH2 songs-of-awesome are "Strutter" and "Surrender.")
Biscuits and gravy for dinner. Probably more Guitar Hero in the evening.
---
Saturday, February 3, 2007 - o/` Everybody says she's looking good
Rented Lego Star Wars 2, then met Chad and Ruth Ann for lunch at Buca di Beppo, where we had extremely tasty sausage-stuffed shells. Back at the house afterwards, he and I started on the game, and almost immediately began complaining about the faulty help-text, the lack of explicit goals, the bad camera, the near-infinite deathtrap I slipped into on Tatooine, etc.
It's fun to watch though, and between chapters we enjoyed starting bar fights with the other characters in the Cantina. I think we'll at least rent it long enough to finish out the Story Mode, but I'm not interested in the Free Play mode and I don't think the game is worth actual money. We've got enough other stuff to play together anyway, like FF:Crystal Chronicles and Tales of Symphonia.
Later, I sold $27 worth of books and manga at Half-price Books. We stopped to look at the John Irving selection and fell over laughing when we identified at least five standard Irving cliches within JUST the back-cover blurb of ONE book (Son of the Circus). On the back-cover was a quote from the New York Times Book Review, calling it "his most entertaining novel since Garp," which didn't warm us to the book either (we have less-than-glowing opinions of Garp's literary and entertainment value, and I in particular have nearly uncritical love for the post-Garp, pre-Circus Owen Meany).
Organized more stuff at home, made some registry decisions, and headed for Target, where we were largely unimpressed by the draperies and flatware but found acceptable stuff in other categories. Among the ordinary stuff on our registry like towels, bed sheets, an iron, and a garlic press, we also put down for neat stuff like a headphone splitter, Wii controllers, TV trays, and a box of filters for the water pitcher. On our way out the door I'd said I was buying dessert, so after some deliberation in the freezer section we finally picked a Sara Lee cherry cheesecake.
Back at the house again, tortilla soup for dinner, half of the cheesecake for dessert, and more video gaming.
---
Sunday, February 4, 2007 - "Scruffy McTrenchcoat"
Had tuna pasta for lunch, then went to a different Target in hopes they would have a different selection of stuff for our registry. Not much luck, though we did at least add a printer. Then we returned to the north end to pick up my ring, which now fits much better (still seems a little wiggly, but any smaller and I don't think I could have gotten it ON). Aaron was disappointed because I failed to make any squeeing displays of enthusiasm, but in my defense I had communicated the state of "missing my shiny" several times in the two days between drop-off and pick-up.
At the house, more of the same: gaming, unpacking, storage, flailing angst about where the hell we're going to put all my crap. :P He made pizza and watched the football game; I watched part of it (and played PW2, from which this day's tagline-quote comes). My brother Jeff called about five minutes before the end to congratulate Aaron on the win. We watched out the window as the drunken neighbors set off fireworks (triggering a car alarm three doors down), then finished the cherry cheesecake and gamed a little.
Oh, and we added more stuff to our Target registry online (a spice rack, an Oregon Scientific remote thermometer), and created a paltry one over at Amazon (a pair of booklights, non-sucky flatware). We worked hard at not having boring registries and I feel we succeeded. Oh, and sweetie, I found out today that anything on our Target registry that we don't actually receive, we'll be able to get a 10% discount on.
---
Monday, February 5, 2007 - "...FISH"
After a lunch of leftovers, we got some pictures of the house for me to show my ever-curious family, finished off the weekend's GH2 work (unlocking the USA and fish guitars in the process), did another chapter in LSW2, and cuddled angstily for a while until it was time for me to pack up and leave. Got home at 7:15.
---
Wedding plans are coming along well, but in some sense it is a mad rush to get everything booked, because normally six weeks into the engagement wouldn't be a high-pressure prep time, but in our case, "six weeks in" is also "four and a half months till the wedding," and that's like crunch time by default, putting us three or four months behind schedule before we even got started. But my dress is ordered and due to arrive on May 15; my bridesmaids' dresses are ordered; the flowers are ordered; we've registered for stuff; we've booked a cabin for our honeymoon. The biggest logistic barrier at this point is finding a place for our pseudo-reception.
Thursday, February 1, 2007 - "You snuck up!"
Left home at 11:45, my truck full of boxes and STUFF. Roads were dry, traffic was clear, precipitation was nil. Got to Aldi around 5, called Mom, and waited about half an hour for boy to arrive. (He snuck in from behind. >_> )
We did our grocery shopping, then went to the house and unloaded my truck, with everything initially going in one of two staging areas (kitchen stuff in the kitchen, everything else in the middle of the living room). I went upstairs and showered while he cooked dinner (taco casserole thing). After dinner we started taking my stuff upstairs and... I don't know, maybe a little Guitar Hero 2? I forget. Oh, we exchanged Valentine's Day cards.
---
Friday, February 2, 2007 - "...and it stopped snow--BAMF"
Dressed in my ALCS 2006 Tigers shirt, had mushroom-stuffed tortellini for lunch, then went to the north end. Dropped off my ring to get it resized, not to be picked up for another two days.
Then to Fry's. It was snowing and cloudy on our way in. We played the Guitar Hero 2 demo unit for a while, thus beginning a string of several days in which I couldn't get the guitar part for "Strutter" out of my head. He bought a DVD, and we wandered through appliances and decided a bunch of things we didn't want to register for (coffeemaker, toaster, bread machine) and a couple things we did want (printer, George Foreman grill).
When we were on our way out of the store, I saw through the window that the weather looked much nicer. As we headed for the automatic doors, I remarked, "Look, it's sunny now, and it stopped snow-- BAMF"
"BAMF" marks the point where the doors opened and we got hit with a hard blast of wind that actually staggered me back for a second. ^_^;
Once we were back to the south end, we went to Best Buy and split the cost of Phoenix Wright 2 as our Valentine's Day present. <3 No action figures this year. ^_~
The game is good so far, and the translation and (especially) localization are fairly good, and someone in that department has a firm grasp on American pop culture, as proven by stuff like "West Clownadelphia" and "This one time at lawyer camp...". However, it's typo-rich, full of all the problems spell-check would never catch - I've actually found myself wincing and groaning aloud at this stuff. PW1 had maybe one or two problems per case for cases 1-4, with case 5 being a little worse than the other four combined... but PW2's is terrible in this regard - there's something literally every couple of screens, and it seems to be getting worse as the game progresses, and considerably more annoying than even PW1 case 5 was. Mostly its/it's and the like, but still very painful in such a text-heavy game.
[Edit: CASE 3 HAS A MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL AFTER THE LAST SCENE :D ]
Got home and unpacked more of my stuff - set books aside in the spare room, combined our DVD collections, got some stuff ready to trade in at Half-Price books, studied our game collections and decided what to sell on eBay (all proceeds going toward our eventual PS3 purchase).
Then launching hardcore into GH2. Over the course of the whole visit we made some good progress: I single-handedly five-starred all of Easy in one attempt per song, with seven of the twenty-eight being perfect error-free attempts; we five-starred some more stuff on Medium (including my first 100%, on "Cherry Pie"); we got a few more tiers into Hard mode, enough to unlock "Cherry Pie" there too, my new "Ziggy Stardust" and "Killer Queen" - the song I handle with ease and finesse and do really well even on Hard mode. (My other GH2 songs-of-awesome are "Strutter" and "Surrender.")
Biscuits and gravy for dinner. Probably more Guitar Hero in the evening.
---
Saturday, February 3, 2007 - o/` Everybody says she's looking good
Rented Lego Star Wars 2, then met Chad and Ruth Ann for lunch at Buca di Beppo, where we had extremely tasty sausage-stuffed shells. Back at the house afterwards, he and I started on the game, and almost immediately began complaining about the faulty help-text, the lack of explicit goals, the bad camera, the near-infinite deathtrap I slipped into on Tatooine, etc.
It's fun to watch though, and between chapters we enjoyed starting bar fights with the other characters in the Cantina. I think we'll at least rent it long enough to finish out the Story Mode, but I'm not interested in the Free Play mode and I don't think the game is worth actual money. We've got enough other stuff to play together anyway, like FF:Crystal Chronicles and Tales of Symphonia.
Later, I sold $27 worth of books and manga at Half-price Books. We stopped to look at the John Irving selection and fell over laughing when we identified at least five standard Irving cliches within JUST the back-cover blurb of ONE book (Son of the Circus). On the back-cover was a quote from the New York Times Book Review, calling it "his most entertaining novel since Garp," which didn't warm us to the book either (we have less-than-glowing opinions of Garp's literary and entertainment value, and I in particular have nearly uncritical love for the post-Garp, pre-Circus Owen Meany).
Organized more stuff at home, made some registry decisions, and headed for Target, where we were largely unimpressed by the draperies and flatware but found acceptable stuff in other categories. Among the ordinary stuff on our registry like towels, bed sheets, an iron, and a garlic press, we also put down for neat stuff like a headphone splitter, Wii controllers, TV trays, and a box of filters for the water pitcher. On our way out the door I'd said I was buying dessert, so after some deliberation in the freezer section we finally picked a Sara Lee cherry cheesecake.
Back at the house again, tortilla soup for dinner, half of the cheesecake for dessert, and more video gaming.
---
Sunday, February 4, 2007 - "Scruffy McTrenchcoat"
Had tuna pasta for lunch, then went to a different Target in hopes they would have a different selection of stuff for our registry. Not much luck, though we did at least add a printer. Then we returned to the north end to pick up my ring, which now fits much better (still seems a little wiggly, but any smaller and I don't think I could have gotten it ON). Aaron was disappointed because I failed to make any squeeing displays of enthusiasm, but in my defense I had communicated the state of "missing my shiny" several times in the two days between drop-off and pick-up.
At the house, more of the same: gaming, unpacking, storage, flailing angst about where the hell we're going to put all my crap. :P He made pizza and watched the football game; I watched part of it (and played PW2, from which this day's tagline-quote comes). My brother Jeff called about five minutes before the end to congratulate Aaron on the win. We watched out the window as the drunken neighbors set off fireworks (triggering a car alarm three doors down), then finished the cherry cheesecake and gamed a little.
Oh, and we added more stuff to our Target registry online (a spice rack, an Oregon Scientific remote thermometer), and created a paltry one over at Amazon (a pair of booklights, non-sucky flatware). We worked hard at not having boring registries and I feel we succeeded. Oh, and sweetie, I found out today that anything on our Target registry that we don't actually receive, we'll be able to get a 10% discount on.
---
Monday, February 5, 2007 - "...FISH"
After a lunch of leftovers, we got some pictures of the house for me to show my ever-curious family, finished off the weekend's GH2 work (unlocking the USA and fish guitars in the process), did another chapter in LSW2, and cuddled angstily for a while until it was time for me to pack up and leave. Got home at 7:15.
---
Wedding plans are coming along well, but in some sense it is a mad rush to get everything booked, because normally six weeks into the engagement wouldn't be a high-pressure prep time, but in our case, "six weeks in" is also "four and a half months till the wedding," and that's like crunch time by default, putting us three or four months behind schedule before we even got started. But my dress is ordered and due to arrive on May 15; my bridesmaids' dresses are ordered; the flowers are ordered; we've registered for stuff; we've booked a cabin for our honeymoon. The biggest logistic barrier at this point is finding a place for our pseudo-reception.