Consumer Whores

That would be us and our shiny new XBox 360. Vic's already unlocked a bunch of songs in Rock Band. The drum part is harder than I thought it would be, since there's also a foot pedal component. But the set lists are pretty awesome and I'm curious what you'll be able to download online.

Speaking of online, the official MS wireless adapter is 100 fucking dollars. Unbelievable. A third of the console price. It's an insult. You've laid down big bucks for the system and they ream you with this little hardware that isn't all that revolutionary. I can get a wireless adapter for my PC for less than $40. So we're holding off on XBox Live, until the outrage subsides (or we find some way around having to buy the adapter).

Airline Madness

The plan was to fly to Detroit last Friday, the 21st.

The airline decided otherwise.

Vic and I arrived at Newark and checked in nearly 3 hours early for an 8 PM flight. First, the flight was delayed to 8:55, then 11:30. Finally, as we were getting ready to board, we discovered we didn't have seats. They had overbooked and there were 4 people vying for 2 seats.

Continental offered us $500 each, plus hotel, if we gave up our spots for a flight the next day around noon. Alas, we took the bait.

Next day, the flight at noon was also overbooked. By 3 seats. Guess who were part of those 3?

The next available flight to Detroit was on Monday the 24th, at 10 AM. So we'd have to go home, then trek back to the airport and do it ALL OVER again.

Fuck that. We got full refunds and just went home. $1,000 richer and very, very tired.

Of course, we probably should have known it would turn out this way, considering our shuttle from the parking lot to the terminal caught on fire. It was just going to be that kind of weekend...

On the bright side, got to hang out with Vic's parents over X-Mas and since I already took the vacation days, I get to veg out the rest of this week at home :)

Temptation

When it was released, I couldn't justify the price of an XBox 360 since none of the games were appealing to me. But it seems the titles are catching up to the console. There are some real gems out there:

* Bioshock
* Orange Box (mainly for Portal, since I'm not a FPS fan...though Team Fortress looks like a hell of a time)
* Assassin's Creed
* Rock Band
* Mass Effect

I think I might be talking myself into forking money over to Microsoft...

Intruder

This weekend, we awoke to the clickity clack of claws on the ceiling. Turns out, a squirrel chewed through the attic fan mesh and set up shop above our heads.

A squirrel trapped in an attic is not happy. Aside from leaving poop pellets all over, it managed to shred a whole bunch of insulation, pee on storage boxes, and nearly chew into a wire.

Thanks to Home Depot, we armed ourselves with a Havahart 1030 and peanut butter on chunks of bread. This afternoon, the little guy finally fell for it.

A squirrel trapped in an attic for two days and then caught in a steel cage is extremely unhappy. I have never heard anything so pissed off before. Apparently squirrels have a panic call that sounds like an angry clown who just swallowed a bunch of helium and is half screaming, half chittering maniacally.

So throwing a towel over the cage calms the squirrel down, though I'm not sure why. Maybe the darkness reminds it of a nest? At any rate, final score: Squirrel - 0 ; Homeowners - 1

We nailed a bunch of galvanized hardware cloth over the attic fan. I hope we never have to do this again!

Somewhat Triumphant Return

I finally succumbed to the blog craze. It's been pretty busy since my last post online. Here are important things that have happened since:

* Vic and I bought a house. Yes, a house.


* Can't stop listening to NPR

* Started Tai Chi classes

* Adopted a shelter cat, named Killer in honor of her irrational fear of everything.


* We now possess a Wii (yes, this is important)

* Finally visited Japan!

* Became addicted to resin kits


* My firm was purchased by Bear Stearns, so I'm an evil wall street corporate type

Now you're all caught up!