Happy New Year - WOOT!

I introduced my wife's old boss to the word 'woot' on Saturday when we were at their house drinking expensive wine. It was really funny to see a short, bespectacled Ukranian man shouting "WOOT!!!" every two minutes. I don't think that will ever get old.

We had a great Christmas, lots of family, lots of presents (for Leita at least), but by the end of the holiday season (essentially late last week) we felt so exhausted and drained that we're going to need about three weekends of pure alone time to get back to normal. And I think we have plans for all but one of the next four weekends.... damn. Not that I don't want to see people, just that I feel wiped and need some chillin' time to relax with my wife and our family.

Oh, and we got a dog last week, his name is Jake. He is an 8 week old mini-daschund / pom cross, rust in colour (I think) and weighs 1.7 kg (3.7 lb). He is SO small! This weekend he learned to climb up stairs, but still can't go down unless he's on the very last step. I'll try and get some pictures of him and the cats (Thor and Odin) on here when I remember.

Anyway, that's all I've got right now. Oh yeah, and we started kickboxing before Christmas, so as of tonight I vow to go at least three times a week (out of a possible four). Wish me luck!

Waiting on my wife.....

Since Leita started her new job in Airdrie we've driven together. And 95% of the time we get to work on time. But 97% of the time she's WAY late getting done, so I never leave Airdrie (work) till between 5:30 and 6:00. At least she gets overtime pay....

The coolest thing about buying a 360 almost two years after it comes out is that a few friends of mine have had theirs forever, and have built up significant libraries of games that I am now free to mooch! I've got about 10 games sitting in a pile, waiting for me to play them... FOR FREE! Talk about being a good budgeter! After I dropped $400 on a 360, $1300 on a 42" plasma, I saved $600ish on games by borrowing from mini-blockbuster (my friend T).

PS Collecting 'points' isn't as much fun or as appealing as I read about in articles when the 360 first came out, fyi....

Halo3 FTW!!!!!

Went to the Futureshop by my house late last night. Not late really, 11:30'ish. Jordan came with me, to spare Leita the cold and bored-ness of standing in line for an hour waiting to be one of the first to buy Halo 3 on release day.

I decided to get the regular, non-snazzy version because I knew that Jordan was going to pick up the UBER-AWESOME helmet pack, and I thought I'd borrow all the 'making-of' documentaries off of him. That's a money saving tip, and a free one at that.

We played the first three campaign levels co-op (normal difficulty) until about 2:30 AM. Then he went home, I went to bed, and the bloody cats kept both of us up ALL FRIGGING NIGHT! Sometimes....... but I'm not angry, I love Thor and Odin.

I was tempted to call in sick, but I decided to be the good employee and stick it out. Hopefully I can get some quality game-time in tonight, after driving home, picking up paint, painting the roof, stencilling our wall design, and making food. Never mind, I'm never going to have time.

Long time no see....

First off, sorry blog. I haven't given you any attention in....... FOREVER!

I have been rather busy lately, you know, getting married, moving, painting, buying house stuff, getting another kitten.

I'd like to get back into some semblance of a routine concerning updating this. If I can make it a goal to do at least one post a week (to start off with) and add more when I feel particularly inspired. Deal?

/spit on palm
/shake hands

Done! See you soon

YAY A HOUSE!!!

This weekend Leita and I spent most of Saturday condo-hunting, looking at about 15 different properties in ~4 hours. We saw some decent places, some that needed a little TLC, and some dumps...

Our VERY last property, a 'bare land condo' in NW/NE Calgary, turned out to be absolutely perfect. It is a 4-level split condo, but the building is not attached to any other dwelling, making it a free-standing HOUSE! We walked in, fell in love, and rushed like mad to get our offer. As soon as we decided we wanted to make an offer our realtor (Dave Rose, a great guy) phoned the realtor selling the property and asked what was going on. The selling realtor said TWO offers were already on the table and he was just about to present them to the sellers. Dave asked if he could wait for half an hour so we could get ours in too, and he agreed. We scrambled like mad to one of his company's offices, rushed through signing everything like a bunch of crazy-people, and got it faxed. The realtor said they'd decide within an hour, so we drove back to our home, waited for 10 minutes, and got a phone call from Dave. He said we beat the next highest offer by $1000 and the place was ours.......... :O

Or, as Leita says sometimes, "WOOT!"

All I can say is, "Whoa..."

Can't think of a good title

I think I should make it a goal to write a post at least once a week, so all three people (my parents and Leita) who check this on a regular basis can at least see new content weekly.

We're officially down to less than two months till the wedding. To be exact..... 58 days. Wow! Our reply cards were SUPPOSED to be sent back by last Monday, the 7th. But up to and including mail yesterday we got back just under half of everyone's replies. Come on people, get with the program! Leita loves mail, I love plans, and parents love to know how much money we'll be trying to squeeze from them! :)

(just kidding guys, we're gently milking, not squeezing)

Anyway, haven't had ANY time lately to veg out and play Zelda: Wind Waker. I got bored (read: died over and over) trying to beat the last boss on Metroid Prime, then realized that I'm sure my little 11 year old cousin Jordan likely beat him the first or second time he tried, then I threw the controller, then I pouted, then I decided to play Zelda again. The graphics are a little cartoony, but there is something inherently addicting about exploration and 'completing' something, even if it is jsut exploring the whole map and getting every island charted out. Then I'll probably try to get EVERY bottle, then EVERY heart piece, then maybe I'll try to finish the game.

But likely I'll get distracted by another newer and shinier game. And the cycle continues ad infinitum....

Gotta love those cheap-cheap games...

Leita and I went to Market Mall (Calgary) the other day to do some impulsive shopping (uh oh....) and she let me go into EB Games after I took her to the pet store to look (momentarily) at kittens and puppies. They (EB) ended up having a big sale on that day where they were trying to get rid of some of their bloated inventory of used games.

For everyone who doesn't know (and I'm assuming that everyone that reads this doesn't), this company makes the vast majority of it's profits from buying used games from people for peanuts and then reselling the used games for almost-new prices. The great (for them) thing about that is that the whole price difference (between buying used and reselling) is profit for the comapny, whereas only a fraction of the sales price of a brand-spanking-new game is profit. I think their rule of thumb is that they buy a game for 1/4 of what they can resell it for, so they'd give someone $10 and sell it for $40, reaping an easy $30 profit...

I usually avoid buying used; call it elitism, snobbishness, whatever, but I don't like someone else's grubby hands being on something before me. I think too much of the time I like new and shiny; be it gadgets, games, clothes, or any other piece of... anything. Yeah, I'm a snob, and I like it like that.

Anyway, Leita let me get a couple (3) games, and the total was less that I'd usually spend on one new game. $19.99 (Pheonix Wright - DS), $9.99 (Prey - PC), and $4.99 (Act of War - PC) YAY! So if I can learn to love the 'previously loved' section, we can save a good chunk of coinage. Of course, these used games were more the exception than the rule: popular games or newer games usually go used for only $5 or maybe $10 cheaper than the brand new. My mom would be so proud of me for finding such bargains; but come to think of it, she'd probably give me shit for spending money on video games in the first place. Actually, it would be dad to give me hell for buying video games, he thinks they are a waste of time (right, dad). Meh, you gotta do what you gotta do!

Got a Wii last night...

from my buddy Ryan, who is going to Europe for ~ 5 weeks. Technically I rented it because I agreed to buy him a controller (if I can find one). Hooked the power and video connections up, placed the sensor bar BELOW the TV (as placing it on top is a good way for it to fall off and break), then turned it on and started pointing away. I really like that there is a dashboard when you turn it on, letting you pick what you want to do each and every time.

I created Mii's for Leita and myself, then checked out the weather channel, news channel, and the internet. The internet channel is a little unwieldy, zooming and navigating and inputting site names is much more difficult than on a computer, but I was still impressed. I officially am loving the fact that most new tech toys are connectable wirelessly, doing away with cords of all sorts is a wonderful thing.

Haven't tried any games yet, went to bed early, but within the next couple days I want to invest some time in Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Or should I finish God of War? Or should I rent Super Paper Mario? Or should I get farther in S.T.A.L.K.E.R? Too many games, too little time...

HELLO????

Does anyone even ever come here to read this? If you've ever been here to see my ramblings, write me a note in the comment section of this post or in the Cbox on the lower right portion of the screen

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(over there and down near the bottom, black box, can't miss it)

GOW FTW!

Borrowed God of War from my brother last night, played it till the wee hours of the morning (but don't tell Leita that), the succumbed to a sleep full of demon-slaying and twirling SWORDS OF DEATH!!!

If you haven't played the game, go now! Buy (or rent or borrow) and you'll love it. I guarantee! If you don't, you must be a zombie. After this I'll try to borrow the sequel from my brother too, if he manages to buy it soon.

PS If you don't know what FTW means, google it. I'm behind the times because this is the first time I've actually used it, but I can now say I'm part of the real geek-internet culture...