Brick By Brick

We went and saw the Lego Movie today, because we're big kids who will never grow up. It was decent, about what you'd expect from a movie meant for kids.

Balanced

Funny how similar Mad and Tara can look. Mad is Tara's Mini-Me. Only, without all the evil.

Dusty Data

Cleaning things out while they freshen up our office with new paint and carpets. Remember when these were the coolest because the 5 1/4 only held 360kb but these babies could hold a whopping 1.44 mb?

Sainted Flowers

Flowers for my Valentine.

Cold Snap

After two months of 30 or much colder, it's almost 60 today. I took the dogs on a long walk...without a coat! Will wonders never cease.

Fog Light

Off to the airport, it was certainly a fast weekend but mission accomplished!

Temporary Chevy

We are up ungodly early to make our 6:40 am flight to Chicago. Here's the Chevy Malibu we rented which got driven not at all thanks to the storms. Still, being a car guy I had to point out my ride. Last night it was covered in a shell of snow and ice but John and I mucked it out.

All In Albany

So things are still a big dicey out on the roads, but with John at the helm of his trusty Jeep we made it down. And not just us, aside from Mari, John, Casie and I there was Mari's sister Debbie and her husband Rob (their puppy Buster pictured). Mari's brother Aaron, his wife Kristen and their daughter Samadhi. Mari's niece Rachael made it too, so it was a pretty significant family gathering especially considering the weather. For his part Bob, Mari's dad, seemed to be doing pretty well. I have a lot more pictures, but I tend not to like to post pictures of people without asking.

Snowed In Three

Something to give an idea about the snow level. Worry about getting down to Albany aside, we had a really nice day hanging out with the Huldens, catching a movie, having some good food, good conversation, and watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. 

Snowed In Two

It snowed pretty steady all day, seems to be letting up a little but freezing rain is promised.

Monumental Escape

Thanks to John's driving and his Jeep we ventured out to get some supplies and went to see the Monuments Men at the local theater. It was a little slow at times and never seemed to find it's voice, but was decent.

Snowed In One

We woke up to this today, and more snow is expected as well as freezing rain. Salem, which is between here and Albany, has been labeled as completely impassable by the news with warnings not to go anywhere near it. Albany itself is just as bad. So, with some concern we might not even be able to get to her dad before we leave early Monday, we have officially labeled ourselves snowed in.

Timing

We knew the weather would be a little dicey, but nobody saw this coming. We got in just before a huge snowstorm buried the entire area.

From Oregon To Indiana

Casie and John were nice enough to let us crash their weekend and stay with them, which means I finally got to meet Indiana!

Western Bound

The word from Oregon is that Mari's father is not doing well, so we are winging our way towards Portland. These reports aren't always reliable, but better to be safe than have any regrets. We have a plane change in Chicago, where Lake Michigan is partially frozen.

Ice Cycle

The garage at work this morning. Cold keeps on being cold.

Like Dylan

I started to try and learn guitar a while back (holy cow, I didn't think it was that long ago!), and it really hasn't gone anywhere. I learned a few notes, practiced sporadically, but for the most part had basically stalled out. Justin Sandercoe and Marty Schwartz are both great teachers, but watching their videos and finding the will to go through the steps just wasn't compelling enough to keep me motivated.

Recently my friend Jason mentioned Rocksmith, a game / learning tool for guitar and let me borrow it for the Xbox 360. It's so much more compelling and entertaining than just trying to learn a few notes and practice them over and over. It teaches through different "games" that are really disguised lessons. They can't get away from repetition, there's no shortcut to muscle memory, but they have done a good job of giving you options to keep it fresh. I've been playing every day for almost two weeks and actually look forward to practice time. 

Of course it only works with an electric guitar, because you have to plug it into the console via a special USB to 1/4" jack so the game can track how well you're playing and give advice on parts you're struggling with. I only had my acoustic and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on another guitar in case, despite my renewed enthusiasm, I didn't stick with it.

Initially Jason let me borrow his guitar, but it was a nice and fairly expensive one and I wasn't comfortable being responsible for it. I went to my friend Chris, who is a semi-pro guitar and bass player, for advice on what to buy and he had just the answer. He bought his daughter a guitar to learn on. It's a cheap beginner guitar, and because it was for his kid he bought a special lifetime cover anything from damage to theft warranty. It hadn't been used in almost two years and was just gathering dust. I offered to buy it off him, he insisted I just take it and use it as long as I need, with no need to worry because as mentioned it was cheap to begin with and is completely covered. There was just one caveat. It's pink.

So now, secure in my masculinity, I have left behind the acoustic and have gone electric with Rocksmith and my pink guitar.

Supermeh

We went to a Superbowl party over at the Kramer's house. The party itself was a lot of fun but the game was bleh. Broncos got stomped, there was never any real competition, and the commercials weren't great. The Superbowl in general just isn't as entertaining as it used to be the last few years in one man's humble opinion.

WOTM

February starts with the nicest day in weeks.