Round Four

The handsome guy above is Lancelot, our fourth trial run in the dog foster department. As mentioned previously, we've had an impressive 3 for 3 streak of getting dogs put into 'forever homes' with minimal visits to the urgent care clinic (animal or human).

Lance actually might be our favorite one so far as he's pretty chill (he's 8 or 9, which helps explain it) and is well behaved. However, he's got enough energy to play with Chloe which is nice. 5 or so years ago we adopted our permanent golden Ben to be Chloe's buddy. Of course this never really worked out as Ben's pretty sure he's a person instead of a dog.....

Note to Self

Do not watch A Baby Story when you are home sick and your husband is out of town. It will only make you cry, which will make your burning eyes hurt more, your runny nose run more, and your slight headache turn into a large headache.

Its Game Time

Being a Michigan guy, there's no rivalry in sports that compares to Michigan vs. (the bastardly) Ohio State. However, I'm perfectly fine with Duke vs. UNC as a runner-up. Great schools, successful programs, large fan bases, legendary coaches--wait, make that one legendary coach & one coach who's not afraid to sell out his program.

Regardless, they meet for the first time this season tonight at 9:00. Hopefully UNC gets a full dose of the Jon Scheyer face....


I'm not sugar-coating it Beth..........

Go To Hell Carolina, Go To Hell!!!

Weekend Roundup....Plus

Well another fine weekend has come & gone in Raleigh with thankfully no yard work--here's the highlights:

• Friday night was momentous because K & I finally had success in securing some food at the Hayes Barton Cafe. We've attempted to eat there on two separate occasions & both were strikes; once it was just too packed & once we got there at closing time (What restaurant closes at 9:30 you ask? The HBC). The second time was particularly unfortunate as we stuffed 6 people in the Outback & poor Craig (who gets motion sickness in cars) had to ride in the back. Not exactly the ideal situation. Regardless, this time Kristin & I manged to sneak in just for some desert & we'll certainly be back. She had some sort of mint chocolate cake (with full Andes mint bars baked in) & I had a caramel apple pie--quite tasty. Its also noteworthy to point out the serving sizes were huge; we took most of our pieces home.

• On Saturday I took the pooches over to Andrea & Brandon's to watch Duke take out Miami while the K rested on the couch. She regrouped (I tell you, the pregnancy wears one out) & the four of us caught Juno at The Rialto. It was a fun movie that had a couple small but interesting twists that kept it from being too formulaic. Had some quirky characters & some good dialogue--its safe to say we endorse it.
  

• Sunday had a bit of errand running involved (for a duvet cover, if you must know) but since it had a high of 68 or so we took the dogs on a walk around nearby lake Johnson. We did a 2.5 mile loop which tired the dogs out but they did fine. We then drove (all the way) up to Wake Forest to catch the Super Bowl with a bunch of friends. Most of the party (including the hosts, Erin & Brian) were pretty hard core Patriots fans and, unless you're viewing this blog through some sort of time-travel portal, it didn't turn out so well for them. So the party ended on a bit of a downer which I can appreciate considering I lived through The Horror last year. However, the game was interesting & overall the party was great. Somehow Brian grilled hamburgers that actually had bacon & cheese already in the patty--if that's not a monumental human achievement I'm not sure what is.
  

And now for your 'Plus'....

• On Monday morning Kristin & I went on over to the doctor's office for the next scheduled Cubby appointment. The good news is both K & the baby are doing great and we got to listen to the heart beat for the first time. I think we were both expecting the heart beat to sound like what one would hear through a stethoscope (think 'thump, thump') but through the doppler thing it was much more of a 'whish-whish-whish' sound. The quote from the doctor was a 'strong 158 beats a minute & everything sounds great.' 'Very exciting stuff......
  

The Perfect Game

Many of you fair readers of the blog are aware that I regularly play Halo 3 . For those not in the know, Halo 3 is an Xbox 360 game that has sold over 8 million copies & can be neatly summed up as 'you are a cyborg shooting aliens in the future.' A sarcastic & funny 'intro/review' of the single player game by Zero Punctuation follows.......



However, the real draw of Halo 3 is its multiplayer game. Every day an average of ~ 2,000,000 people play Halo against each other online through Microsoft's Xbox LIVE service. The M$ (apparently its internet law to replace the 'S') servers automatically match people up based on respective experience & skill to encourage even & competitive games. I've literally played hundreds of games (each lasting ~ 5 minutes) & I'm actually a pretty good player (~ 90th percentile or so--which is still a far cry from the pro circuit Beth). However, I've never pulled off something quite like this.

Ladies & gentleman, I submit to you the perfect Halo 3 game. Here's the background: This was a free-for-all game type so there's 6 players & its every person for themselves. The goal is to be the first player to rack up a total of 25 (VIRTUAL) kills by (VIRTUALLY) shooting the other 5 opponents. I not only won the game with 25 (VIRTUAL) kills but I didn't have any (VIRTUAL) deaths. That's an amazing 25 - 0 & for those not in tune with the intricacies of online gaming, its pretty much a statistical aberration. That is, the chances of it ever happening/happening again are about as good at asteroid TU24 hitting the earth*.

While I understand that most of you (not to mention the general population) might not appreciate the accomplishment of the perfect game, it was pretty cool for me & putting it on the blog for posterity is a fun reminder of the temporary glory. Granted, when I proudly mentioned the accomplishment to Kristin she predictably/patronizingly said 'well that's nice Jeff.' Now when she sees me playing she's started the habit of teasing me asking 'will this one be the next perfect game?'. I suppose that's the price one pays for perfection........

*The chances were infinitesimal to begin with but they are now nil since the asteroid has passed without incident

Weekend Roundup

It was a fairly productive weekend in the City of Oaks on both the practical (read: housework) & fun (no explanation needed) side of things. A quick rundown:

• On Friday we did dinner & then saw Cloverfield with our buddies Brian, Erin, Andrea & Brandon (Andrea didn't make the movie as she doesn't 'do' the shaky-cam thing). If you've heard that its essentially Godzilla meets The Blair Witch Project than you've heard right. The chatter coming out of the theater was mixed but both K & I enjoyed it because it wasn't the standard Hollywood movie. I liked the surreal aspect of the movie; the use of the camcorder & smart editing really gave the effect of being in the middle of an unfolding disaster. Of course some people didn't like the judgment errors that characters made, which to me just made them--& the situation they were portraying--all the more believable.
  

• Saturday was mostly random errand-running, but it was also the day of the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Some of you may recall I completed the challenge last year but a couple weeks ago I aggravated a calf injury playing football (though I did throw 4 touchdown passes) so I had to sit it out. A few friends of ours ran it this time around & I went out to meet up with them halfway through the race to provide moral support as they attempted to eat their dozen. Our friend Jennifer had 2 (she never had plans to eat the full dozen) but the husband & wife team of Scott & Lanier 'McCrevis' gave it a shot. Scott had unofficially finished the challenge last year (he had to run it the night before due to a conflict) but it wasn't to be this time. He finished eating a respectable 8. On the other hand, this was Lanier's first shot. She was only going to eat 6 donuts but 'they went down so easy' she had to go for the dozen. She actually ate all 12 in 10 minutes (it took me 20 last year) & to really throw down the gauntlet she beat my time by over 2 minutes (to add insult to injury the course was apparently lengthened by a quarter mile this time around). It might have to be on next year.......

• Sunday was lawn care day. Take a look at the insane cubic feet of leaves we've raked. The annoying thing is most of them aren't even from our trees, they belong to the huge oak next door......The day ended on a positive note as we had people over to watch Duke vanquish Maryland & eat some Lillys (damn good) pizza. We also celebrated our buddy Stephanie's 31st birthday with a cake Kristin made (the ice cream, thankfully, was store-bought). And yes, you know some Rock Band was played.......
  

• Finally, it gives me great pleasure to introduce your new Firedog Corporate Mascot...
  

Thanks to everyone who helped out & voted. At this point its unclear how many votes he got but I'll let you all know. The rescue already got $1,000 for being the charity of the finalist & an extra dollar for every vote Hank got. Now they'll get $50,000 because he won though apparently the total donation can't exceed $100,000. Very cool....

Petra Ad Infinitum

Here in Raleigh, the unborn Cubby is somehow managing to take up a good chunk of our free time. We're reading baby books, discussing nursery decorating, and even planning for future daycare. Not to mention that Kristin feels the effects of the baby most nights which has her climbing into bed around 9:30.

However, much of our non-Cubby time is currently focused on Rock Band, an Xbox 360 game my parents got us for Christmas. Even though Rock Band Fever is apparently sweeping the nation, for the uninformed here's how it works: Up to 4 people at once can 'play' ~ 50 popular songs together with each using a different 'instrument.'

The game is essentially a deluxe karaoke system--while someone sings the songs other people can be on the 5 piece colored drum set as well as both bass & regular guitars with colored fret buttons. The people on the instruments play along by following a scrolling pattern of colored notes & tapping/drumming the corresponding color.

An example of 'full' band playing Stone Temple Pilot's Interstate Love Song (& an excuse for me to embed a video):



K & I have our own band (called Benny & The Pets) & we play a few songs a night. She usually drums & occasionally sings while I man the guitar (much better than I ever have in real life). Its a great party game--so much so that one of my co-workers tried it once then went out & bought a 360 & the game.

Through the miracle of the internet, we could also play online with any of you so feel free to pick it up and join in the fun. We're ready to rock whenever you are.........at least until August when the Cubby shows up.