Alternate 3rd Thursdays

Just... just freaking do it.

You get an achievement for it, but that's not a loud enough venue. This morning in Castle Crashers, I found all of the Animal Orbs! w00t!

In any kind of game if there are little animal friends, I usually end up making it a goal of mine to collect as many of them as I can. WoW was a nightmare for me, since a few of the pets weren't available any more. But I had Speedy and my Wolpertinger, and they made me happy.

And for the Castle Crashers players, you should know that my Install Orb could beat up your Install Orb. So, there.

Google Search History.

There are a lot of people (vocal voices on the intarwebs) who decry the "invasion of privacy" that Google search history poses. These people have better memories than I do.

I just successfully used a search of my search history to find a web page that I found the first time in August. Of 2007.

This pleases me.

You check the car at 30,000 miles. I decided to do a little preventative maintenance at 30 years, so I had a routine check up yesterday. My blood pressure is up a little bit. Not concernedly so, but something to watch. There were two things that were a bit disconcerting, though. I don't exercise enough, and I now have a piece of paper with that fact written down on it. It says "exercise 5-6 times a week, 30 minutes." I have a prescription for "get the hell off my ass." Ouch. :) Also, it turns out I'm a big weenie. I had to have a tetanus booster, and I started a hepatitis A vaccine series, so I got a shot in each arm. Before hand, I was all worried about the shots. (Weenie) They were fine, I barely felt them, but I certainly worked myself up about them in my head. And now, my arms are sore! (Weenie) I'll be fine, I'm sure, but still... (Weenie)

I don't think it's terminal, though.

NT walks by my office with a Taco Bowl (usually only available on Thursdays).

NT: Cats and Dogs, living together!
Urn: That is one big twinkie.
NT: That's what...
Urn: She said!

Today is the annual "XOC Hootenanny." Basically, a big ol' cookout on a lake, but with a lot more Rock Band. (What? You know where I work.) Every year, we hold it at a state park, and according to the rules, no glass bottles are allowed. So, while bringing alcoholic beverages is permitted (even encouraged in this group), it has to come in a can. "Comes in a can" is a painful restriction for anyone who doesn't like to be able to freely compare their beer to the urine of various mammals, but in the interest of drinking down the courage to sing in Rock Band in front of co-workers, sacrifices must be made.

Shawn had previously had a sighting of possible redemption - New Belgium's Fat Tire in a can. I couldn't believe that NBB would do such a thing, but was willing to give it a search.

I found it, but I still couldn't believe it existed... Why would they do this? Cans? But, Fat Tire is good. You don't put a good beer in a can. It makes it... ungood. I read a paragraph on the bottom of the case talking about "can conditioning," the process where they leave a specific amount of live yeast in the can to absorb the oxygen remaining from the process of canning. Now I understood the "how," but the "why" still eluded me.

I pulled one out of the case. In an instant, it all made sense. Across the top of the can was the phrase "Pack it in Pack it out." See, the people who work at NBB are all like-minded individuals. Everyone there shares a love for nature and the outdoors. OF COURSE they put at least some of their beer into cans! No matter how green you are, you don't want to backpack a bunch of empty beer bottles if you don't have to. Why not put a decent beer into cans, so you can bring it with you? Nicely done, NBB!

Day 3 of our vacation brought us to the one place we wanted to go above all others: Edgefield. On an awesomeness scale, it's the largest of the McMenamin's properties. It used to be a county poor farm during the Great Depression, and as the poor people grew older, it was turned into an old folks home (around the occupants).

During a chat with a particularly awesome waiter at dinner that night, we found out that McMenamin's had recently purchased the jail on the adjoining property, and is working on converting it into the "luxury suites." I can honestly say we will make every effort to get a room in the jail as soon as it's ready.

Five years ago today Kat and I got married. Hitched. Tied the knot. Wed. Espoused.

The fifth anniversary gift is wood. Wood? Really? The jokes write themselves. Just... Never mind.

At our wedding, we had dahlias. So. Many. Dahlias. (I just posted my favorite dahlia moments from our wedding on Flickr.) While we were talking some day after our wedding, Kat told me that if I got her a bouquet of dahlias on our anniversary she would be perfectly happy. I didn't need to be extra romantic, or know the perfect gift to get her (especially jewelry), or plan a special dinner. Just remember to get dahlias. So, every year on the day of our anniversary, I go to Pike Place Market and get one of those large bouquets. We have a few traditions between us, but this one is my favorite.

Love you, wife. Happy five years. :)

I've been playing around with various forms of communication and connected-ness, and I think I've found a pretty good set. I just need to get the blog interconnected with all this stuff, and everything will congeal into a nice, round ball.

I prefer Facebook over MySpace, hands down. I think that the two are very similar, but it feels like Facebook is a grown-up version of MySpace. I choose to play with other grown-ups.
Me, on Facebook

I'm a total Tweetard, but I'm learning.
Me, on Twitter

To keep track of my day to day stuff, I use Sandy. If someone tells me about a movie, or an event, or something to do, I send Sandy an email, and she keeps track of it for me.
Sandy

Posting photos from day 2 of our vacation.

Some commentary is provided on the individual photos. I'll try to write more later. :)