Upping the Ante

In preparation for our upcoming move, Mr. Frisby and I have been going through some of our stuff and getting rid of some things. We found some old textbooks and decided to sell them online. My old textbook was selling new on Amazon for over 100 bucks. We listed mine for 90 and then lowered the price to 80 dollars when it wasn't selling. The book sold yesterday, giving us a profit of about 70 dollars after shipping costs. I decided to make a small purchase with the proceeds:



Since we already have all of the Rock Band Instruments, we only needed the game disc to begin our own version of Beatlemania. Mr. Frisby was ecstatic when I came home with that little gem and after dinner, we immediately got to work rocking out to the Beatles' legendary tunes. We popped in the disc and our eyes sparkled with wonder and awe as the intro played across the screen. We became almost giddy as we scrolled through the song list and picked "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" for our first attempt. It wasn't far into the song, however, when I realized how much pressure I was feeling to do well. You see, without knowing it, we had upped the Rock Band ante. I found myself trying my best to not miss a note, not because I didn't want a bad score, but because I didn't want to disgrace the Fab Four. All of sudden, success had more to do with playing the song right for the sake of making the song sound good than for getting a high percentage of notes hit right. You can't screw up the Beatles - that's just not cool. So, there we were, playing our hearts out in honor of four guys from Liverpool. And we were having the time of our lives. Soon, we even got out the microphone so we could sing along. We never use the mic unless we have four people playing and we have to. But, when it's the Beatles, you can't help but sing along. So, now we have the Beatles Rock Band and I believe it has taken us to a new level of video game euphoria. We don't play too many video games, but The Beatles Rock Band is about the best thing a video game system can hope for and it makes us giddy to play it. Anyone want to join in?

Life

My sister called last night. She wanted to make sure I'm alive since it's been so long since I've updated my blog. My sincerest apologies. I've wanted to post several times, but the problem is that life just keeps happening and sometimes it doesn't allow much time for blogging. So, I'll give you a brief rundown of the things I've wanted to post about in the last few weeks, but just haven't had time for.

1. I ran over a bolt. Poor Maggie. She took it like a champ. The bolt punctured right through the tire, leaving it with 0 air pressure in a matter of minutes. Thank everything for run flats. Even with no air pressure in the tire and a gaping hole, I was able to drive home from work and then drive to my favorite tire place the next day to get the tire replaced. What is my favorite tire place, you ask? America's Tire Company. They're awesome and have always treated me right. I could probably be their spokesperson. When encountered with such a circumstance as a bolt in the tire, they prorate the price of a new tire based on how much tread is left - as long as you purchased the tire there originally, which I did. So, a 225 dollar tire (yes, that's singular) ended up costing me about 110 dollars. If you ever have any tire issues, go to America's Tire Company. They're awesome.

2. Visitors. My sister, Julie, and her husband, Terrell, came to visit for Labor Day. It was a short visit, but we had lots of fun. We went out to dinner, had all the family in the area over for Sunday dinner, and spent Labor Day poking around Capitola. We also introduced Julie & Terrell to Rock Band, which prompted them to buy the Beatles version as soon as it came out. I also demonstrated to Terrell how I shoot at the squirrels around here. It was fun to have them here for a visit. Last weekend, my brother, Byron, and two of his kids, Ben and Sierra, came to stay with us so they could go to my niece, Alyssa's, missionary farewell. Good times with family.

I guess that's it. You really haven't missed that much. But, rest assured, I'm very much alive and keeping pretty busy. I will try to keep a little more on top of the posting so as not to disappoint my adoring fans. The last few weeks have been a little hectic, but hopefully things will slow down a bit and leave me with a bit more time to devote to the blogosphere.