It's time to shill

I may be a Johnny come lately to the Guitar Hero thing, but that doesn't mean I'm not already a rabid fan. We picked this up on Sunday, and it's already my new hobby. I probably played 2 - 3 hours yesterday, and I'm having a blast, even though my left hand is somewhat atrophied and clawlike today. Drew showed me the ropes of how to handle the axe after unboxing it, then I set down to shred when he went down for a nap. After all, the last thing he needs to be thinking is that the life of a rock star is something to aspire to. I, on the other hand, realize that aspiring to be a virtual rock star is nothing to worry about, and is probably the safer and saner route to musical glory. So far, I'm progressing nicely through the "infant" difficulty, and am somewhat satisfied with myself, being able to hit over 90% of the notes.

After playing the game for a while, I tried my other games, "Leafblower Hero" and "Lawnmower Hero", neither of which was quite as fun. Oh well.

The squeeze inn

We celebrated Dan's birthday a little late with burgers from The Squeeze Inn in Sac. The place is tiny, and we probably waited in excess of 30 minutes for a couple burgers. The gimmick here is that if you order the signature "Squeeze with Cheese", it's made with probably a 1/2 pound patty with a full pound of cheese on top of it, which falls off the burger and is grilled crunchy, producing the signature cheese skirt. It was a good burger, but a bit out of the way for us, and was squarely in heart-attack land as far as the health benefit. For day to day burgin', I think we'll be sticking to in-n-out.

Night effects

Waiting for the dan, and i'm making some art.

Amy embraces the dark side

...with a membership to sam's club.

Ferris wheel truck

At least that's what Drew called it.

Berkeley's cheeseboard pizza

They only sell one type of pizza each day. The insanity!

Still got sunshine

Well, the days are getting short, but at least i still get some sun here. I'm really not looking forward to the return of standard time, it's nice to have a little light on my way back to my car after work.

Huh?

These were at the farmers market this morning. I'm still baffled.

Insult to injury

After they set off the trap, they eat the peanut butter, then dig a fresh hole.

Dead on the street

It sure would be nice if my car warned me when i leave my lights on.

It's cranberry day

Costco had cranberries on sale last night, I think it was 3 lbs of berries for $4. Not being one to pass up such a tremendous bargain, I grabbed a bag. Drew seemed to be sharing in my joy at finding a bag of such delicious fruit, so I offered to share my bounty with him. He put one berry in his mouth, bit down, and Amy was laughing at the sour expression on his face. Apparently, these aren't for everyone.

Today, a bag of these accompanied me to work. What better snack to enjoy and break up the monotony of desk work?

I'm almost done with the bag, and the remainder have to last me 2 more hours, but I think I'll be okay. This weekend, I'll probably try to make something else out of the berries, and I might even add *gasp* sugar to them. The tart edge on them is a little harsh, but isn't that part of their charm? I certainly think so.
For those interested in the health benefits of cranberries, here's some interesting reading. There is a good number of reasons that they're regarded as a superfruit.

New blanky

No, it's not Drew's blanket, it's Amy's. But he adopted it. Good luck getting it back.

Spreading seeds

Nothing's more fun than picking a dandelion from a stranger's yard then blowing the seeds all over their lawn.

Skwirlz 2 - The Reckoning

It's a different day, but things are the same as ever with the squirrels that continue to plague our backyard. Actually, it's not the same - it's worse. Since it's Fall, the squirrels are "squirreling away" (now you know where that phrase comes from) their acorns for the long, dark winter ahead. Our neighbors have been graciously providing them with acorns, and we graciously provide them with loose, fertile soil in which to bury them. When Drew and I got home tonight, we saw two of the evil little vermin in the backyard, really yukking it up at our expense. Actually, it was one evil squirrel, and one little cute juvenile one. But we musn't get attached - this is war.

With an advanced enemy comes the need for advanced weaponry. But with a tight budget, comes inventive tools. Therefore, I had to make use of what rodent control implements I had on hand, namely the rat traps. With internet research, I learned that rat traps can be used to control squirrels, but you have to anchor them down. Since squirrels are a bit bigger than rats, and have multiple large furry appendages, it's possible the trap could snap on his fuzzy little tail, and he'll make off with your entire trap, then later laugh it up with his buddies, as you run off to purchase more rat traps. I had an overabundance of wires and cords in the office, so I sacrificed an unused phone cord as the anchor. And the trap was ready, three of them, in strategic locations.


A little peanut butter, and the traps are set. Now, only to wait.


To be completely honest, this is my third time baiting the traps, with no results. I'm not sure how they're doing it, but they keep setting off all three traps, eating the peanut butter, then sitting on the fence as I re-bait the traps, licking their lips in anticipation of the next meal. I figure they have to slip up eventually, and when they do, I'll be ready.

Enjoying a yogurt

An after dinner ritual.

Ms Wendi's class goes to the pumpkin patch

Ms Wendi's whole class took the morning off to go to the pumpkin patch. Amy and I took the morning off work to accompany them.

Drew and I blazed our way through the corn maze. It was easier when we found out we could sneak through the "untracked" area between the rows of corn.

Enjoying a tractor ride.

He didn't end up with this pumpkin - it didn't meet his criteria for "funny". He wanted one of the misshapen rotten ones, but we ended up with one with strange green and orange coloration instead.

After a hard morning of work, he finished with a hearty meal. And he napped after getting back to Wendi's.

Niagara Falls

Shots of Niagara Falls. Pretty impressive stuff, even though we were only there about half an hour. The waters above the falls were some of the roughest I've ever seen.

A Canadian Costco

This is the 3rd country's Costco she has been able to visit. She's holding her Kinder Surprise candies, which was really the only thing she really wanted to bring back home with her.

Lake Ontario

We pulled off the QEW on the way back to Buffalo to check out the lake. Sadly, the freeway doesn't offer many views. The lake was enormous, and this wasn't even the biggest.

The wedding rehearsal

I didn't really have any business being there, but I accompanied other more important people to the wedding rehearsal.

This is the door of the church, waiting in the cold, hoping it would open soon. The head is Alicia's dad, and the black hair in front is probably Will.

A confused Will is wondering if the doors will ever open. Background characters from the far left are Alicia's brother Matt (who played DS games with me), Will's wife Laura, Alicia's Mom, her Aunt, and her Dad. If I screwed this up, please let me know!

Amy laughing at something tremendously clever I quipped.

The front of the church. It was very churchy!

More of Toronto

More sites we saw while cruising around the city.

A huge construction project was going on right by CN Tower. I didn't bother looking for signs indicating what they were building, but what this city was sorely missing was a park, which we never did see.

A shot from the base of the CN tower. It really was tall.

Steel fish jumping a concrete river.

The chicken truck? I wasn't sure what to make of this.

The sights of Toronto

Toronto is exactly what I always thought a city would be. Dirty streets, massive skyscrapers, landmarks, terrible driving conditions, nice public transit system. We took a walk around the city on Friday.


This building was incredible looking. Like it was about to tip over in a hundred different directions.


We were all held at an intersection for over 5 minutes by cops to allow an ambulance to pass by. People would try to sneak by the cops because of their various emergencies, and the cops would usually just let them sneak by. We knew there was the potential for a riot, because the crowds were getting restless and no one could figure out why we were all stopped. The ambulance was a bit of a letdown, we were all prepared for something like a presidential procession to come through. Maybe it was the president in the ambulance.


We had one of those fancy Tea meals.



This is what it looked like walking around in downtown Toronto. That space needle-looking structure is the CN Tower. It's on the tall side.


We walked through some kind of cool sky bridge.


The woodpeckers up there are enormous. Here's one pecking a hole in a large steel pole.