The Lake... Again

My wife and I went to the lake with her friend again. This time I ended up getting a little sunburned.

Recycling!

Took in our recycling today, getting about $10 and change for it. Also went to take my wife's car in for a tire rotation because the reminder e-mail said it was time, but there wasn't enough miles on it or enough wear on the tires to necessitate a tire rotation, so instead I got one of those little static stickers to put on the windshield reminding me to bring it in at the specified mileage.

Empty Fridge

I had half a quesadilla, the last egg, and the last hot dog for breakfast this morning, because we have no milk for cereal and no bread for a sandwich. We really need to go shopping....

XP Styling & PandoraBrowse

For the past couple days I was experimenting with utilities to make XP look more like Windows 7, but today I uninstalled them all and went back to the classic XP look (though with the silver color scheme, not the blue). I just couldn't tweak the Windows 7 styling to look like how I wanted.

Donated a buck to PandoraBrowse, since not only is it a fine program that I've been enjoying for the past couple weeks, but also the author was kind enough to implement several of my suggestions for improvement.

Hacked Account

My grandpa had his email account broken into today. I believe what happened is he signed up at some websites, and one was probably a trap which took his email address and password and logged into his account (since most people use the same password for everything). So I wanted to remind everyone that if you ever register at websites, use a secondary password that's different from the password you use at sites that you know are legitimate, like Google and Yahoo.

Got My Car Back!

I got my car back today! We were letting a friend borrow it.

The Lake

My wife and I went to the lake with her friend, Misty. Also along for the fun were Misty's kids, her mom, and a couple of her friends. It was a good time at a nice little uncrowded (and shaded) spot.

Beat Portal!

I beat Portal today! Now I'm back to playing Half Life 2.

Twilight Saga: Eclipse

My wife went to see The Twilight Saga: Eclipse today after work with one of her friends, and she enjoyed it. I didn't care for either of the first two films in the saga, so I'm gonna wait for DVD.

Started Portal

Took a break from Half Life 2 to check out Portal, also from The Orange Box. It's a unique and clever first-person puzzle game with great bits of dry humor sprinkled throughout.

Started Half Life 2

Started playing Half Life 2 today, from The Orange Box... and I like it! Feels very similar to Dead Space.

Beat Dark Sector

I beat Dark Sector this evening! Still need to go back through and get more of the achievements, but that's going to have to wait until later, as next I want to start playing The Orange Box.

Goodbye Halloween Decorations

A little while back I cleaned out our bedroom closet and came across some cheap little unopened Halloween decorations that we've had ever since our wedding. So I posted them up on Craigslist and today somebody actually bought them!

The Book of Eli

My wife and I watched The Book of Eli this evening. It started out fairly slow, but got better as it went on.

New Gig

Called the electrician who did some work for my parents a little while back, as he had apparently been wanting to get a website setup for his business. So now that's another project to work on.

Dentist & Misty's Place

Had a dental cleaning this morning... big fun.

After my wife got home from work, we went over to her friend Misty's house. That was a nice little change of pace. Oh, and again I didn't work on their computer! I did try some homemade Jalapeno jelly... and it was better than I was expecting, but still not really sure what I'd use it for. I pretty much only use jelly on PB&J sandwhiches, and don't really have a hankering for a Jalapeno-flavored sandwich.

The Last Airbender

We went to see The Last Airbender in 3D at Movies 10. I went in with very low expectations, so I wasn't quite as disappointed as my wife was. But I still feel ripped off having to pay for the 3D glasses, since there didn't seem to be ANY 3D effects in the movie AT ALL.

The Thin Man

This evening my wife and I watched The Thin Man We're usually not too interested in those old black & white movies, but it was one I got from my dad and the reviews on Amazon were all fantastic, so we decided to check it out. And I'm glad we did, as it was actually a pretty good movie. Makes me want to check out other old films I've heard so much about.

Happy Birthday Treese!

When my wife, Treese, got home from work we went out to eat at Logan's Roadhouse. She got a beautiful looking porterhouse steak and I got a BBQ Pepperjack Burger. And boy was it delicious! Their chips were WAY overcooked, however. I mean, they were almost uneatable. I asked the waitress about it, and apparently they do that ON PURPOSE! C'mon people, there's a different between kettle-cooked and burnt-to-hell.

After dinner we came home, dropped off the food, and headed off to Prime Cinemas where we saw Knight and Day. It was by no means a masterpiece of cinema, but it was fun and we enjoyed the experience.

Icky Salami

Late, late last night I returned the two moldy salami sticks that I bought the day before we left for Vallejo. I was going to just do a quick exchange, but when the FoodMax dude and I examined the other salami I picked out, we found that it also didn't look right, so he gave me a refund instead.

I called GardenWinds and bought a top cover for my parents' gazebo frame, which my mom had been meaning to get for quite a while.

Home Again!

We stopped off in Sacramento on our way home to visit my wife's mother, and picked up a couple smoothies from Jack in the Box while we were at it. After getting home and unpacking the car, we were both exhausted. I put on It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a DVD that we got from my dad... and although it had a ton of famous comedians in it, I really didn't find the movie all that funny. But boy was it long!

The Karate Kid

Went to see the Karate Kid with my wife, mom, and sister. We all thought it was pretty good. Afterward we went to Safeway and picked up supplies to make more of my wife's hot and sour soup.

Happy Early Birthday Grandpa!

Today was my grandpa's birthday party, which was held in the backyard of my aunt's house. We ate chicken and played some party games, like a few rounds of Bingo, guess the number of jelly beans in the jar, and remember as many of the items as you can on the tray that was brought over. Amazingly, my uncle Bill guess the EXACT number of jelly beans in the jar, 2780. Treese and I won the memory game, coming in first and second place. We both had the same items written down initially, but when I learned that there was no punishment for wrong answers, I just started writing down small objects that could have been on the tray, so I'm pretty sure that's what did it.

Later that night, my sister and I played another board game I brought with us called The A-maze-ing Labyrinth. We both liked it.

Weekend at Family's

My wife and I are spending this holiday weekend visiting my family in Vallejo! It was evening by the time we arrived, and we didn't eat before we left so we were pretty hungry. But, that's why we brought my wife's hot and sour soup, which was delicious. We also unwrapped a stick of salami that we brought, but it was all moldy... and I just bought it the day before!

That night we tried playing this new boardgame called Celtica that my mom got me for my birthday. It was pretty fun, though some of the finer rule points were a little unclear due to translation errors in the instructions. Later that night I looked up our questions about the rules online, and discovered we were playing it slightly wrong.

Wife's First Day Back, and Not My Rebate Check

Today was my wife's first day back to work since the whole almost-dying thing. She was exhausted by the time she got home, but still seems like she's making improvements every day.

I received a rebate check in the mail that had my address but someone else's name. So I called the 800 number and they were able to find the real address for that person, which was just down the block, so I walked it down and gave it to her. It wasn't a big check, but hey, money is money.