Game Stop: Forgotten Circle of Hell

I recently made my first trip to Game Stop, a used buy/sell/trade video game store. We've amassed quite a pile of Wii games, many of which we don't actually like. So we picked out 3 and headed to Game Stop.

Holy crap. This place is awful. First, it is full of the worst kids on earth. Second, those kids are with the worst parents on earth. I witnessed one child so enraged by the fact that the game his mother was buying him didn't include classic Pac-Man, spit flew from his mouth. And all of the parents were screaming at their children, at all times, from all areas of the store. Just awful.

We traded in our 3 games for a used copy of Twilight Princess, one of the Legend of Zelda titles. Only to get it home and find that it doesn't work. Hmpf. Now we have to go back to Game Stop to return it. I'm pretty sure I won't be able to convince Patrick to go without me...but I'll try.

Sign Me Up!

I saw this over a Boing Boing Gadgets today and had a good time looking at the posts. This person (people?) work at some big social networking or fan site, and get emails from kids begging and lying to be let into the site despite their age. The good ones get put on COPPA KIDS:

And this kid tried to steal my perfect username:

Garden Planning

It's time to start planning the garden! And that means that Spring is coming, which is exactly the kind of news I need to hear right about now.


Here is a sketch of our plans. We have 3 large raised garden beds and 5 small ones. We built them out of non-pressure-treated boards (don't want any chemicals leaking into the soil) over the past 3 summers. They've served us well, but will probably rot out soon. That will be a good chance to redesign the space, as their dimensions and placement could be better.


So, here's the list: cherry tomaotes, plum tomatoes, some kind of larger tomatoes (beefsteak?), spinach, lettuce, snap peas, english peas, strawberries, zucchini, carrots, eggplants, collard greens and various herbs. Oh, and weeds, of course. Can't avoid those.

Sense and Sensibility--Stop Haunting Me!

Sense and Sensibility. OK, for real, I can't stop watching this movie. Every time I come across it on PBS, I stop to watch it.

Which is strange, because as far as I know, I can't stand Jane Austen. About 12 years ago, I took a long trip. One of my friends gave me two books for the trip: One Hundred Years of Solitude and Pride and Prejudice. I ended up reading OHYS about 8 times (love it). The Austen book I pulled out whenever I had trouble sleeping on trains--after 6 pages I was sure to be asleep.

But this movie! The acting is excellent, the costumes, sets, people, beautiful, and the romance and scandal!!! The honorable Edward. The rogue Willoughby. Top notch.

So, you should try to catch it when it is on. It's in two parts, so it might take some planning to see the whole thing, in order.

Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxXffditEgA

James Harrison Super Bowl 2009 100-Yard Interception and Touchdown...INCREDIBLE

This poor guy was not built to run that far. But yay!

We watched the game at our regular Steelers bar and had a great time. I'd say there were about 100 fans there, lots of noise, lots of cheering. Though that last quarter was tough to watch.

HERE WE GO STEELERS, HERE WE GO!