Getting behind on blogging!

I have over two dozen “blog this” mails to myself and I know I need to knock those out more frequently. But I’m just not finding time for working on the computer. I have stories about my hiking/kayaking trip with the boys, have the temp chicken coop and shelter that I’d like to detail, and all the other little stories for home that I usually write.

One of the reasons is that I was finishing up a video game. That’s right, my Xbox was getting more time and attention than the blog. Hey, it’s been stressful and quite nice to just knock out an hour or so of dungeon spelunking rather than doing real work. And, sorry (not really) to say, I have a lot more gaming to work through between now and the end of the year!

Let’s see … let’s take a look at what’s been going on with my Xbox these past few months.

Arcania: Gothic 4

I like RPGs … Role Playing Games. I like the exploration and finding all the little secrets. Yup, they typically take/waste a lot of time, but I watch zero TV so consider this my vice. On July 5 I started this game and played through the 29th of that month. Pretty quick for me, actually!

I liked the game enough while playing … as a matter of fact, I’d started a couple games at the same time and the controls and story for Arcania had me playing this game through. However, I sorta hated the achievements for this one.

The two problems were that they had a lot requiring you to gain expertise in a type of combat and then use that combat as the sole fighting technique through the game. I gained the Arcane Reaper achievement by wiping out 300 enemies with magic. But, as the game doesn’t respawn enemies, I wasn’t able to get the Sniper (kill 100 enemies with arrows) or Duelist (kill 100 enemies with flurries) achievements.

Also, you couldn’t go back to certain areas once you moved through them, making your gathering of collectibles (yeah, I’m look at you Ancient Treasure, Radiant Blessing, and Dark Reward achievements). Yes, I could collect them all as I went through the game, but it breaks up the immersive flow to do that. I usually play a game through and then run back and scan for all the hidden treasures.

Anyhow, the absolute worst feature was that, in the final battle, you didn’t get any experience for killing any of the bad guys. There’s an achievement, Legend, to reach Level 30 with your character; I was a couple hundred points from being at that level and, without experience in the final boss battle, without having enemies that respawn and not being able to get to all the prior locations, I missed this achievement.

I could always replay the game but I have too many other “distractions” and projects to replay anything. So, I look at the nine achievements I missed in this game, sigh, and move on.

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Now, when this game came out from Rockstar Games, it was after the Columbine tragedies and panned by the Press for encouraging schoolroom violence. But, the premise of the game is that you’re a punk kid in a prep school and you’re out to “rule the school”. You need to get the nerds, preps, jocks, greasers, and townies on your side to do that … and, your first year roommate ends up being your rival.

You do end up getting into plenty of fights, can shoot people with a slingshot, and are a general menace, but no one can die, there are no guns, and if you pick on little kids, girls, or an adult, you’d best be running or cops and prefects will chase you down and cool your heels in detention our the county jail.

While not my usual cup of tea, I was entertained by the hijinks of little Jimmy Hopkins enough to play it through … and enjoy it.

I managed to get all but four achievements but gave up without trying hard to get them all. In one part you need to go to “class” and in the biology class you need a keen hand to dissect a frog in a time trial. I usually hate time trials and this was no exception … I just wasn’t getting close to done by the time the “class ended”. So, I knew I wouldn’t get the Perfectionist achievement. And, if you’re not getting one … it’s easier to pass on the other.

Overall the fun part was the variety of missions and that little Jimmy wasn’t evil or hurting people … he actually helped quite a few folks (as long as there was something in it for him). So, this was a fine way to spend the month from July 31 to August 18. Oh, it was a game on loan from my nephew David (and his pop Steve). Thanks, guys!

Divinity II: Ego Draconis

This was a complex game in the love-hate category. It was simple to get into, had almost no bugs that I found, allowed you to fly as a dragon, and had a lot of variety: you start out battling “orcs” (or goblins or something like that), end up building up a Mage Tower, and ultimately battle the bad guy as a dragon! What a hoot!

But the “hate” part: leveling is wonky in that an enemy above you by a level or two can wipe you out easily, those below you by a couple levels cease to be a challenge, even en masse, and the unforgivable sin of keeping me from getting one of the 41 achievements!

The achievement in question is Adrift and to get it, you have to find Michael’s secret raft. In the story, you have the opportunity to run across a guy named Michael. Talk to him and you find out he’s building a raft to escape an island. That’s it for then. Later in the story, as you’re in the final battle with the bad guy, you can go back into an area, find the raft Michael had built, and get the achievement.

Unfortunately for me, I talked to Michael but must have died, went back to a previous save, and then didn’t talk to Michael in that gameplay. So, when I went to look for his raft, I’m not able to see it. The really bad part is that the game only allows you to have a few game saves and so my earliest saved game is well after I had a chance to find Michael.

So to get this one achievement, I’d need to replay the game. No thanks.

So, while novel and engaging for the time from June 22 through September 26, I won’t be returning to it. Alas.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

While it may look like I was trying to only play those games that had a colon in the name, that isn’t the case. but it’s darned funny they all have sub-titles!

Now this is a game I really like. I popped the disk in on September 19 but only to see if the scratches on it would impact the gameplay … I bought it used. I really started playing on the 27th and have been itching to spend more time in 15th century with Ezio, the Italian assassin!

This is the third in a series of games in which you play Desmond Miles who has “ancestors” who were assassins; you can tap into their memories and live out their lives. There’s a bunch of cloak and dagger manipulations in the story, you meet a young Leonardo da Vinci, and other historical figures from that time. But, at the heart of the gameplay is Ezio, jumping from rooftops, hiding in shadows, and deploying all manner of martial forces to stop the Borgia from taking over Rome! (and, as I said, it’s much deeper than that)

What I like about the game is the crisp controls (mostly … don’t try to run at a sprint and turn a corner; you end up running up a wall!), the buttery smooth animations, the fluid graphics, and (again) the variety.

You sometimes have to escort other characters through city streets unnoticed, you need to remove guards silently, you have to find your way through cavernous ruins to uncover hidden treasures, and you can build up your villa by earning/spending money. There’s just a lot to do and most of it isn’t terribly tedious.

Also, the achievements are generous. Some games have you going days and days without getting an achievement … come on! They’re fun to get! Hand ‘em out! With Assassin’s Creed, you get them at moderate play-through time and for reasonably easy accomplishments (Your Wish is Granted: throw coins in a well). While I won’t be getting them all (they have a lot of co-op gameplay achievements), I have 13 now (of 50) and I imagine I’ll end up with 43 … give or take.

That’s it

And that’s it … that’s what I’ve been doing game-wise. As I said, I don’t watch TV but I do play Xbox most nights that I don’t have dedicated to something else. Coming up, though, I have a couple games that I’m really waiting on: Rage and Skyrim. With Skyrim being a game I’ll be playing a very long time!

Whoever said this knew what they were talking about …

I guess it’s a testament to life to have these fragile hearts all tattered up. The older we get the more holey they become. I’d rather have a mangled heart as opposed to a solid, unfeeling one.

Eyes on the prize

Updated 9/30 – added brand names to products purchased

Part of what I love about the Fair is heading into the Exhibition Center … otherwise known as “that place where all the people sell all that stuff”.

Not sure what I like about it: the hucksters, the shysters, the people just manning a booth … love ‘em all. And their products! Miracle sponges, shoe cleaners, pliers, tapes, cookware, makeup, gutters, shelving for the garage … it’s all there! Markers for kids, edibles, power tools, “the last hose nozzle you’ll ever need!” Not sure what I love about it, but I do.

But, I hate crowds.

I live in a comfortable house with one other person, I head into work early so I get a seat to myself on the bus, I have my own office, work in a professional space, and do not go to the mall. All of this allows me to live in a private, small little world. Enter the Exhibition Center.

It’s a mass of humanity, swelling and sweating and pushing against each other in all directions. There are strollers and wheel chairs, there are people who eat like I did at the Fair the other day each day of their lives! It’s just a heaving, pressing throng of people.

For the most part I’m OK with it. Now and then I just have to stop, step against a wall, and let the crowd seethe by before I can step back in. Suzy knows that look I get and patiently waits for me to be ready to get back in there. But, to fight it, we headed to the Exhibition Center first thing. Well, first thing after a scone and an early BBQ lunch!

While we usually just look things over … I pride myself on being able to politely ignore people I don’t want to see … we did pick up a few treasures.

HydroFlask – Red Water Bottle

Suzy brings lunch to work most days and enjoys a cool beverage that’s not from a soda machine. So, she has a few thermal flasks. OK, she has a couple flasks but none keep her drinks hot or cold … all liquids turn lukewarm after a shorter time than you’d think. So, a booth selling the thermal flasks and food containers caught our eye.

[Ed. update starting here for this item]

The Hydro Flask caught our eye because it was a quality reusable thermos. It’s double-walled and vacuum insulated, ensuring that the beverage maintains it’s temperature and you can hold it without burning or chilling your hand. It had heft without being heavy, if that makes sense.

Oh, and they were “the right size” for comfortable holding, had a nice food-grade powder finish, and were made from steel, not aluminum. And, I’ll be honest, it was a nice “red” color!

You can read more about Hydro Flasks here.

Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm – Honey

Yum. Enough said.

[Ed. update starting here for this item]

Suzy enjoys a good honey and we were out. While this brand is available at Pikes Place Market, we saw it here and it looked pretty good.

You can read more about Snoqualmie Valley Honey Farm products here.

Band-aids

Not a purchase, but they made it into the picture.

Rescue Tape – Silicone Tape

These are the three baggies in the upper right of the picture. It’s a silicone tape that doesn’t feel sticky but adheres to itself amazingly well. While it won’t work well to apply to the surface of something, if you can wrap it, the stuff will hold together. I got some on impulse more than need but look forward to finding a problem it will solve!

[Ed. update starting here for this item]

You can read more about Rescue Tape here.

V-Sharpener – Knife Sharpener

I was most on the fence about this purchase (the small black and red cylinder on the right in the picture). We have a very similar knife sharpener already in the drawer at home (it works by having you draw a knife through two carbide plates that are fixed in the plastic housing; the metal of your knife is softer so the carbide leaves a keen edge), but the one we have requires you to hold it with one hand and pull the knife through with the other. We bought this one because the maker was smart enough to put a strong suction cup on the bottom so it’ll stick to the counter while you sharpen your knife. Good design.

[Ed. update starting here for this item]

You can read more about the v-sharpener here.

That’s it

The rest of the stuff in the picture is just flyers and handouts from our walking around. The scone recipe from our Scottish friend, an instruction pamphlet on building a “potato tower” (a planter for potatoes), and a coupon for a free cupcake at Burning Cupcakes.

It was a good day … we didn’t spend too much money, got a few things we could use, and, by showing up early, we avoided the extreme crowds I find dislikeable. A good day indeed.

Do the Puyallup–2011 Food Edition

Suzy and I went to the Western Washington Fair (better known as the Puyallup Fair) this past weekend with a focus on “what are we going to eat”. Yes, a day at the Fair, all the bad food, and us with too much spare change in our pockets. What that meant is that we consumed far more calories than I’d care to count and that Suzy has been nursing a sore stomach all day today. But, it’s a once-a-year event and I enjoyed it! So follow along and hear about the day!

Fisher Scones

We got to the Fair before 10 AM and they let us in. While many booths weren’t opened yet, we had eyes for one thing: starting off with BBQ at our favorite place. Unfortunately, they weren’t serving quite yet so we decided to walk around. With our appetites whetted, we were an easy mark for a line-free Fisher Scone booth!

Scones have been a fair-time favorite of mine: lots of real butter and enough raspberry jam to ensure you need a napkin after licking your fingers clean. This time I only had one scone and that was enough.

Suzy has been making scones at home and I prefer her recipe; also, the scones we got this time were cold/cool, a tiny tea cake size, and had only a petite dollop of jam. In all, it made for too-quick a treat. But, it was good to see how well off I am at home and it did dull the edge of hunger until the next stop opened …

 

 

 

 

Puyallup Pete’s

I didn’t get a picture of their sign but I did of our lunch! A couple pulled pork sandwiches with plenty of sauce and a big ear of corn! It was painful to part with the exorbitant prices they were asking for their food, but it did a solid job against the hunger I was feeling from not having breakfast (scone aside).

We have enjoyed Pete’s nearly every year we’ve been to the Fair and will likely continue. It was a great early lunch!

 

 

 

 

 

Dairy Barn / Milk Parlor

I remember going to the “all the milk you can drink for a quarter” stand at the Minnesota Fair in my youth. Those were formative times.

Two things have changed: I no longer get milk, I’m looking for ice cream; and you ain’t getting much of anything for a quarter at the Fair these days! So, we lined up early for some ice cream treats: Suzy got a cone and I got a “sno ball” (essentially a cup full of ice cream with some sort of topping mixed in). And, to be correct, I should say that we’re enjoying ice milk and not ice cream.

Whatever it was, we were absolutely enjoying it!

 

 

 

 

Pavilion Kitchen: scones

As I’ve noted a time or two in this blog, Suzy likes to bake\cook, and she does it well. Part of doing it well is practicing and the other part is learning all she can. So, it was natural that we’d spend a few hours at the Pavilion Kitchen in the 4H building seeing who was on stage.

This year we caught two shows: the first was by a Scottish woman, Fran McGregor, who was making scones (!), which the class started out learning is also pronounced “scawns”. But I love my scones so I was ready for this show!

Fran talked about running a tea room, authentic recipes, and baked some scones right there for us. When we got our samples, she’d run out of hot scones so we got some she’d made earlier. They weren’t knock-your-socks-off-great, so when she took a second pan of hot scones out of the oven, I begged a second to share with Suzy. Fran obliged, we enjoyed, but they still can’t top Suzy’s.

It was quite nice, very mild, and if we start to get the itch to put fruit in our homemade scones, currants would be a great place to start.

 

 

 

 

Love@First Bite

After the scone show we took a short break and walked about, and just outside the Pavilion Kitchen doors was a booth for cupcakes! Alright, I wasn’t exactly hungry but I was game!

I got a chocolate chip cup cake that was OK. I wouldn’t get another … just not great. It was moist and had lots of frosting, but curiously not a lot of taste! Suzy had an ultra-moist chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting and marshmallow center. She offered me a bit but I just couldn’t eat more sweets just then. I feel I was starting to max out!

 

 

 

 

 

Pavilion Kitchen: cupcakes

But, an hour and a half later we were back to the Pavilion Kitchen stage to see a local company, Burning Cupcakes, talk about baking … cupcakes! While it was mostly a presentation demonstration (showing “jar cup cakes”, “cake pops”, and “push-up cupcakes”), we did get a cake pop at the end of the showing.

The bite-sized sample was all we needed but hearing bakers talk about their craft was the main goal (and reward) here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krusty Pup

But I needed something salty to cut through all the sweets we’d been eating … and it was about 6 PM. On our circuit of the Fair, as we were leaving the fairway, we spied a trusty Krusty Pup booth, noted the side line had only one person it in, and we sidled up! Suzy got a Krusty Pup with mustard, and I finished off a dish of curly fries quick as you please.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funnel Cake

While we wandered the Fair another couple hours, Suzy couldn’t leave without getting one of her favorites: a funnel cake. We sat eating the powdered sugar-mounded treat and a passerby looked in horror asking what it was. I fumbled to describe it when Suzy adeptly said: it’s deep fried pancake batter topped with powdered sugar.

And that it is. Or was. While I intended on nibbling just enough to be sociable, I probably enjoyed as much as Suzy.

 

 

 

 

 

Ice Cream Cone

And we ended it with an ice cream cone!

I was really looking for an ear of corn but all the places I looked had long lines or I just couldn’t see paying $4 for an ear of corn. Yes, I’d been paying prices most often associated with highway robbery and extortion, and willingly(!) doing it all day, but, by this time in the day I probably wasn’t really hungry so it was easy to say “no”.

Suz wanted one more cone before we left and I made my order along with her. So, as the evening air was stealing over us, our feet were aching from the miles we’d put on (and with an increasing body mass!), we licked our cones away and watched the late night Fair-goers stream by.

 

 

 

 

 

An end to the day

While this is a food posting, I have to add a bit about the day’s end.

We got home and Suzy, flashlight in hand, went up to close this chicken coop door. I was watching from the downstairs windows and noticed the light was playing across the yard. Oh oh … that can’t be good. I leaned out and asked what’s up and she called back that all our hens were missing. Very not good.

So, I tossed on shoes, grabbed my own flashlight, and headed out.

By the time I got out, Suzy had spied the three youngsters: one roosting on the plastic fence, and two in a wispy apple tree we planted a couple years back. So, in a few minutes we returned those birds to their coop and wondered what happened to Poopy Butt. She was nowhere to be seen.

We canvased the yard, looked over the fence, spied under bushes and looked in low branches of all the trees we could find. No Poopy Butt. So, we gave up the search and just sat on the backyard deck and waited.

After a half hour or so I went back into the house. It was cool and nice outside but I didn’t see the point in waiting: chickens don’t move around at night and we couldn’t see enough to figure out what happened to our hen. But, a short time later, Suzy called out: she’d found Poopy Butt and she was well.

Tucked away beneath a fern on our side of the fence in Suzy’s garden, Poopy Butt had hidden herself. I was impressed she was smart enough to hide that well but really impressed with Suzy spotting her! So, we deposited her in the coop and called it a day. The best we can figure is that Poopy Butt somehow got over to our side of the fence and couldn’t get back. As the new “alpha hen”, she wasn’t around to show the youngsters to the roost, so everyone was messed up.

But, our little flock was well, we were sated, and it was time to get to bed.

And that was my day of eating. Thanks for reading!

Is less really more?

Let’s be honest: I haven’t really been ripping it up with posts in the last couple months: two in August and none (so far) in September. So, what gives? Have I lost the love? Have I had nothing going on? Am I too entrenched in other details to lift my head and shout out a bit on the happenings here in SeaTac, WA?

To be honest, it’s been busy time and every spare minute behind the computer seems to be spent on “maintenance” of a digital lifestyle. I am uploading photos to Flickr, working on the Cat Cartoon blog, and staying caught up on mail. And, while I’ve normally been doing those things, life outside of the Internet has been a bit busier than usual. So let’s start there in an attempt to catch up on the happenings here in my little corner of Seattle.

After “the raccoon attacks”, (mentioned here … a second bird was chomped that I didn’t document; the raccoon attacked between 11 and 2 PM!!) we decided to only let our birds out when we could be around to watch them. And, considering we’ve enjoyed having “free range” birds in the yard, this was a hard decision, both from the sense that we were having animals on the property but keeping them cooped up (hee hee … pun intended!), but also considering that “watching chickens” can get darned old after a while. And, yes, I’ve been making great strides on reading my paper materials: the daily newspaper, our monthly issue of Smithsonian, any of assorted novels I pick up on the cheap from Costco, or the rare missive that comes through the parcel post.

So, it’s good time and reasonably high quality, but there’s a part of me looking forward to coming home at the end of the day and not being able to sit outside! I have lots going on that I enjoy doing that the forced couple hours of sitting outside feels just that: forced.

Next, work was tough for a while there. Quite tough. Or, to be more exact, just demanding in terms of overall time spent in the office and catching up while not in the office. It was a long three weeks or so. But, enough about that.

Then came some fun: my annual trip with “the boys”. Once a year I get out with some old co-workers from my Boeing days and we find the quieter places left in Washington state. This year, just to shake things up, we chose to sea kayak for five days. I’ll definitely post more about that here as it was a great trip. While it wasn’t remote or “quiet”, it was different, and I liked that a lot. My 750+ MB of pictures are now loading to Flickr while I type this, but the story will have to wait another day or so.

And we’re back to “chickens”. As a result of our flock being small and pent up daily, we argued two things:

1) If it’s beyond our control that “things” will happen to our chickens and it’s hard when you have a small flock; why not get a bigger flock?
2) Caring for a few more chickens isn’t that much tougher than caring for the few we have now.

So, while Suzy prepared for our expanded family by buying a few extra chicken coop accoutrements, I built a new “temporary” shelter.

It’s temporary in that the top is just a tarp stapled down, the sides are all panels of the same dimensions and screwed together using thin metal plates, and we have no intention of leaving it up beyond the few weeks it takes for the new birds to get a bit stronger, have them weather a quarantine period, and so each group of chickens (our new ones and the few we have from our earlier flock) get used to seeing each other. We’re in for a “pecking order readjustment” as soon as we do mix the flocks, but that shelter will only be around for a while.

And that’s it. Just a few things but demanding in time. Today Suzy and I will attend the annual Puyallup Fair for a bit of a feeding frenzy paired with a lot of walking, a bit of gawking, and maybe some purchasing!  

As always: more later!