Monthly Archives: September 2010

Getting Free MS Points Using Bing

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Posted by Rob on September 29, 2010 – 3:21 pm
Filed under Gadgets/Tech, Video Games
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So I read online a few days ago that Bing was having a special promotion. Basically by downloading the Bing toolbar to your PC and using it for searches, you can earn Bing reward points, which can then be redeemed for stuff. One of the “stuff” you can snag is MS points. Basically, 100 Bing points = 100 MS points, and not to mention the fact that you get 250 points for signing up. You can check it out for yourself here. I’ve been playing with it a for a few days to see what exactly is needed.

First off, I had to install the Bing toolbar onto my PC. The site said that I had to install the toolbar onto IE, but I was able to pop it on FF, and have been using it and receiving points, so I guess that works. So that nabbed me 250 points, which I quickly redeemed. Then you get one Bing point for every two searches you make using Bing, for a maximum of ten per day. So each morning I get up and spend a minute or two doing twenty random searches, just to get my quota filled for the day. Also, on the first day I started this, there were some “offers” located on the Bing rewards toolbar. Basically it said “click this link to learn more about the Beatles and earn three points”, and sure enough it took me to some article about the Beatles. Same for another similar offer that taught me the wonders of Charlie Brown comics. These offers were available the first day I started this, and there were five of them. Once you do them they remain on your list of offers, but are marked off as being used. Sadly, no other offers have become available like that over the last three days. So basically within the past four days I earned over 50 points, and was able to snag a third 100 MS point offer and redeemed it this morning. However, the big catch is that the “ten points a day in searches” offer seems to only be good until October 2. After that date, I’ll be curious to see what is necessary to continue this offer.

My biggest concern is how to finally receive these MS points. I redeemed them the day I started, which was four days ago on Sunday. Since then I have received three emails telling me that I had three orders for 100 MS points each that was “under review”, and have not heard about how to redeem them finally. I don’t know if they will be postal mailing me a code for each order, or if they will e-mail me a code for each order, or if they wait a certain amount of time and then send everything out in one lump sum…these details are scarce as of right now. Still, it’s not costing me anything to do it, and while I miss the ol’ google searches, putting up with Bing will be worth it if it eventually leads to a few free XBLA games a year.

No Ordinary Family…A Nice Mixture of The Incredibles and Heroes

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Posted by Rob on September 28, 2010 – 9:37 pm
Filed under TV Shows
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With the series finales of Lost and Heroes last season, I was left wondering if there was a new show that we would be able to get into. When I first heard about another super hero tv series in the guise of No Ordinary Family, I was a bit skeptical as it looked like it was a bit too family-driven and not necessarily super power driven. However, as chance had it, we turned the TV on at 8:00pm tonight, and happened to pass it right as it started, and I said “let’s watch it and see how it is.” After the premiere episode, I’m happy to say that I liked what I saw, and will be watching it regularly.

The show focuses on a family of four who suddenly receive super powers following a plane crash. Seeing how it is the first episode, not much else was revealed, but you were introduced to the family. The stay at home father who is a police sketch artist has super strength, can jump (or bound, as he puts it) and likes to catch bullets. The scientist mother has the ability to run really fast. The teenage daughter is a telepathic and can read the thoughts of everyone…including the backstabbing friends at school. Finally, the son can… apparently understand complex math problems? There are some other characters with powers introduced throughout the episode, hinting at the fact that their powers were not unique to the airplane accident, including a man who can teleport (very similarly to Nightcrawler) and someone who appears to have the power to control electricity.

After watching the first episode, I believe that it will be a promising series. The combination of people with powers along with a strong family unit reminds me of a merging of Heroes and the Incredibles. The show isn’t entirely serious like Heroes was, and has some of family-friendly feelings like the Incredibles. Seeing how I’m a fan of both, I’m pretty happy, and if you like super heroes and all the cool stuff they do, give the first episode a try and see what you think about it. As for me, I know what I’ll be watching every Tuesday night at 8:00 on ABC.

Just Picked Up “No Chocolate Cake”…The New Gin Blossoms Album

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Posted by Rob on September 28, 2010 – 6:44 pm
Filed under Music
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Being the huge Gin Blossoms fan that I am, I had the new CD, No Chocolate Cake, pre-ordered so that it arrived today via Amazon. I am currently listening to it on the 360 while I cook dinner, and will be posting up a little ol’ review of the album once I gave it a few listens to get a good feel for it. Still, I’m expecting good things since their last release, Major Lodge Victory, was pretty solid.

Getting Pumped for Smackdown vs. Raw 2011

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Posted by Rob on September 27, 2010 – 9:04 am
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As many of you know, I am an avid fan of the THQ game series WWE: Smackdown vs. Raw, despite the fact that I am not a wrestling fan. This game actually makes me a hyprocrit, as I will openly criticize people who purchase each year’s version of Madden, while at the same time I purchase each new edition of SvR. So last month I traded in my copy of SvR 2010, along with some other games, and got enough credit from Amazon to pre-order 2011. I’ve been reading up a lot on it, and I’m getting pretty excited on some of the new things they have to offer.

The most interesting is this concept of a “Universe” mode. When turned on, the game will keep track of who fights who and all wins and losses in exhibition mode. Then, the game will use this information to form alliances and enemies which will be used to enhance the feel of the exhibition mode, and make it feel more like a wrestling match. For example, if you are fighting someone else, and beat them up, chances are they may attack you during your next exhibition match. It can be done on your way to the ring, they can get you in the middle of your match, or they can wait until the match is over before they strike, interrupting your victory celebration in the ring. At the same time, it also means that if you have a tag team partner who you fight alongside frequently, there is a chance they will come to help you out during your singles matches. While all this has been attempted in previous games, it was always a very random and iffy thing, but it sounds like they are concentrating on getting it right this time. While all this has been attempted in previous games, it was always a very random and iffy thing, but it sounds like they are concentrating on getting it right this time. Read More »

PSN Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

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Posted by Rob on September 26, 2010 – 1:16 pm
Filed under Video Games
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I was pretty unfamiliar with the whole concept of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. I had never heard of the graphic novel, and was not really interested when I heard about the movie. When I first heard about the game, I ignored it thinking it would be another cheesy movie/game tie-in. But then I started hearing good things about the game…it was a multi-player beat em’ up with  retro-esque graphics and soundtrack. The more I heard about it, the more interested I got, and after playing the demo it wasn’t long before I made the full purchase. I can’t say much about the graphic novels or the movie, but I can say that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World makes for one hell of a great downloadable video game!

The game does follow the basic storyline of the graphic novel and (I’m guessing) the movie: Scott Pilgrim is a kid in a band who meets and falls for a girl named Ramona. However, in order to date her, he must defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends. Thus, you take control of Scott, Ramona, or two other friends who are in Scott’s band, and you take to the streets of Toronto to track down and defeat the ex’s. Right off the bat, from the main menu, the display, music, and sound effects all take you back to the hayday of the NES and Sega Master System. In fact, the game feels like you are playing River City Ransom, as you walk through town, beating up bad guys with your fists or weapons, and walking into shops to purchase health and stat upgrades. The main world map is extremely reminiscent of that of Super Mario Bros. 3.  Each level ends with you taking on the boss of the stage, who is one of the seven ex-boyfriends, and each one has some kind of unique power/ability that makes each fight a little different.

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Geocache Adventure #13: Return (again) To Schodack Town Park

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Posted by Rob on September 22, 2010 – 1:14 pm
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I had been to Schodack Town Park twice before, and while it’s not as big or nice as East Greenbush’s, it is still a great place to spend an early morning caching. I returned there this morning for two reasons: first, a new cache was just placed there last week, and secondly, there was a multi-cache I wanted to attempt to find, seeing how I haven’t found one of them yet. Thus I woke up, got ready for the day, and headed out to the park.

The first cache was titled “Patriotic Placement”, and when I crossed a bridge along one of the trails and looked out, I knew right away where I was headed to.

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All Ready for this Year’s Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey

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Posted by Rob on September 20, 2010 – 7:52 am
Filed under Sports
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It’s now September, which not only means that the first hockey game starts at the beginning of October (though preseason starts this week), but also that the Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey league is ready to go as well! I drafted my initial team about two weeks in a live draft. Personally, that’s the only way to go if you ask me…you can’t expect to get good players if you simply rate players on a list and then see who you happen to get. I think I’ve got a pretty good initial team to start with, though there will be adds, drops, and maybe even some trades as the season goes on. Here’s my starting team: Read More »

PS3 Review: Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions

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Posted by Rob on September 19, 2010 – 10:57 pm
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Spider-Man (or any super hero game, for that part) games tend to be hit or miss. If it’s a movie tie-in, chances are the game will be limited due to having to work within the terms of the film, and will also need to be rushed in order to meet deadlines. If the game story is not following a movie’s script, then there is a chance that the game will be pretty decent. I was a huge fan of Spider-Man: Web of Shadows and the other Spidey games that allowed you to move about in a sandbox environment. Sadly, Shattered Dimensions drifts away from this by offering 14 different stages rather than an open area to explore and find missions to advance the story. Still, despite this huge limitation, Shattered Dimensions proves to be a very pleasant Spidey experience…so long as you don’t mind playing a game that only lasts nine hours.

The plot is pretty straight-forward: Mysterio steals a tablet that gives the user great powers, but the tablet is shattered, and the fragments go flying across four different “realities/dimensions” and fall into the hands of Spidey’s villains. Thus, four different Spider-Men explore their world as they track down each individual villain to reclaim the fragments so that they can repair the tablet and stop Mysterio. There are four different Spider-Men to take control of. The Amazing Spider-Man (the one I’m used to…his storyline is the classic one) is the main one and his levels are pretty straight-forward and basic. Ultimate Spider-Man (similar to Amazing, but has some differences in the environment and story) is a Spidey with the black suit, so he has some different “aggressive” abilities. Spidey 2099 is a Spider-Man from a future world. Finally, Spidey Noir is from a 1920s-themed era and is a bit more “realistic”, in terms of the abilities of himself and his enemies. Each Spidey has three levels, and then all four are playable in the final level. Each level is a different environment, and the different Spideys have different abilities, making each character a tad different (with the exception of Spidey Noir, who is completely different IN A GOOD WAY.)

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What Shell Said: 9/16/10

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Posted by Rob on September 17, 2010 – 7:25 am
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Yes, this altercation happened last night, but my blog host was down, so I could not access it. So without further ado, here it is:

I was sitting on the chair playing the new Spider-Man game, when Shell suddenly wakes up and begins groping along the floor and couch as if she’s looking for something. I stop playing at watch her for a bit, and she keeps doing it. Finally I just have to ask:

“What are you looking for?”

She ignores me, and continues looking.

“What do you need?”

“…unchy,” is all I hear.

“Crunchy?”

“NO!” she shouts at me.  “My hair scrunchy!”

I begin to find it hard not to laugh. “Babes, i dont think it would be out here.”

She sits straight up, eyes wide open, and stares me down. “Why are you laughing at me?”

Of course, this makes it harder to not laugh. “I’m not.”

“LIAR! Don’t bullshit me!”

“Im not laughing at you.”

“Then keep a straight face.”

“It’s just that, you wouldn’t have your scrunchy out here. It would be in the bedroom.”

“No, its out here with me.”

“Alright.”

With that, she laid back down and was asleep in seconds.

And the best part of this story…Shell doesn’t wear hair scrunchies.

Star Pirates: The Newest Browser-Based Game to Suck Me In

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Posted by Rob on September 15, 2010 – 11:37 pm
Filed under Video Games
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Some of you may know that I have been playing the games Cyber Nations and Cyber Citizens for quite some time now. Nations is ok, but I never got into the community, as the game is so massive. On the other hand, Citizens is a lot smaller, and I am quite the big shot in the game. I am ranked in the top 40 or so citizens in the game, and I am a police officer for the city of Dallas, the CEO of Bob’s Bodacious Bookmobile, the head of the Dept. of Recruiting for my political party, and a member of the party’s Dept. of Economics and Public Relations. Needless to say, that game keeps me pretty busy.

Still, I did stumble across another browser-based game which is proving to be pretty fun. It’s called Star Pirates, and basically you are a pirate on a star ship, and you attack other players to steal their money and gain xp. You gain money not only by stealing from other players, but also by scavenging space junk piles, performing missions, and mining. You can also head over to the nearest starport and gamble away at the casino or play the stock market.

To be able to survive in this cutthroat game, there are two things you need to do. First, with the money you earn, you need to constantly upgrade your ship by purchasing new models from the shipyard. Secondly, you can do research, which will raise your weapons, shield, or engines rating. Doing these things is essential to not getting kicked around too much in this game.

One of the things I do like about it is that you can technically play constantly, or like I do, every hour. In Nations and Citizens, it is basically a once or twice a day thing, simply because once you perform an action (collecting taxes in Nations or working in Citizens) there isn’t really much else to do. In Star Pirates, your energy level constantly replenishes over time, and about every hour it will be back at 100%, meaning you can log in again and do more.

So if you’re looking for a free, simple, browser-based game, check out Star Pirates. It’s pretty addicting, and a lot of fun.

Geocache Adventure #12: On the Road to Wally World

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Posted by Rob on September 15, 2010 – 4:15 pm
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On the geocache website, there is an interesting feature where you can view a location with google maps, and little icons appear representing all the caches on file. It was while looking over this map that I realized there were three along the road to get to Wal-Mart. So this morning, I loaded up my geocaching equipment, and left to follow the trail to take me to Wally World.

The first stop on the list was on an embankment behind a local restaurant. I was able to park in the lot of the eatery, and then walk behind it where there was a weird little picnic table set up. From the area you could see a beautiful skyline of Albany.

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XBLA Review: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

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Posted by Rob on September 14, 2010 – 11:33 pm
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I recently received a free copy of Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light from a Good Samaritan I know from the co-optimus site. I’ve been rocking through the game and enjoying every minute of it. Initially I wasn’t interested in the game, since I never played any of the previous Tomb Raider titles. However, when I found out that this game was a top-down twin-stick shooter, I was watching it closely. Now that I’ve had some time with it, I think it’s safe to say that it is a very solid downloadable title.

The basic premise of the game is that Lara Croft chases some dudes into a temple and they all end up awakening an evil spirit, who will destroy the world at dawn. Lara teams up the the Guardian of Light, and the two of them set off through the temple, attempting to track down and stop the evil spirit from making his move. Thus, the game is initially a co-op title, with a player able to control Lara and one to control the Guardian. Sadly, the online co-op is not available yet, and since this is one game I won’t be able to get Shell into, I have not been able to try out the local co-op yet. That being said, I have not been able to personally play as the Guardian yet, as the single player campaign only has you playing as Lara. So this is mostly a review of the campaign, from a single-player perspective (though I will update this entry once I am able to get a shot at co-op.)

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More Pics of our Foster Kittens…Frisky and Boo

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Posted by Rob on September 14, 2010 – 1:00 pm
Filed under Pets
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As you can tell from the title of the post, we have named the kittens we are fostering Frisky and Boo. Since they were so young when we took them in, they were unnamed, so we were given the opportunity to name them. Frisky is the kitten with a little while on his face, and he tends to be the more playful and outgoing of the two.

Boo is a little more skiddish and shy…until it’s feeding time. Whenever food is involved, he becomes the more outgoing of the two.

As can be expected, the two of them enjoy sleeping together.

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Geocache Adventure #11: Adventures in Ranger Land

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Posted by Rob on September 14, 2010 – 12:31 pm
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The town of East Greenbush never ceases to amaze me…who would have thought that amongst this suburban town there was so much nature? Aside from the Town Park and some other locals, I discovered a new one today. What’s amazing about this little sanctuary of nature is it’s exact location…it’s basically blocked in from all sides by residences and businesses! In fact, the best way to get into the area is to park in the lot of the local Hannaford, climb past the guardrail right alongside the grocery store, down a hill, and boom!…you’re in Ranger Land. The area is called this because there are eight geocaches within this little bit of nature, seven of which were placed by an owner who goes by the name of “Ranger.”

On first glance, the terrain made me smile and think about the family property at Oneonta, because it looks extremely similar. This area is not at all like that of the local Town Park. While the Park is heavily wooded, this area, while also heavily wooded, is also heavily brambled, thorned, bogged, and more! There are tons of trails all over the place, but many are overgrown, requiring quite a bit of bushwhacking to pass through. This area was definitely my most challenging geocaching adventure yet, and my lack of success here today goes a long way in proving it. Read More »

PS3 Review: NHL ’11

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Posted by Rob on September 12, 2010 – 10:22 pm
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As big a hockey fan as I am, I have been slacking in the hockey game department. I have been using NHL ’08 for years now, and have never upgraded to one of the newer versions. The main reason is that I was not initially a big fan of the control changes that took place. Since ’08, it has become a lot more complex, and was not something I was used to, so I shied away from it. However, after spending a few days with NHL ’11, I think it’s safe to say that I am officially won over to the new controls. I am pleased to say that I am sending ’11 back to Gamefly tomorrow, but it is going to be my number two game to get this Christmas, right behind Borderlands GOTY. So what is so cool about the newest edition to the EA’s epic hockey series that finally won me over? Pretty much everything!!!

For those of you who are unaware, these control scheme changes I speak of are quite daunting to someone who has been playing basic hockey games since NHL ’96. The biggest change is that shooting and other moves with the stick are primarily done with the right analog. This allows you to actually have a great deal of control of your shot, compared to past games where simply hitting square or circle performed an automatic shot on goal. Now these controls have been around for the past three or four games, but this is the first time that I gave the patience to retrain my mind to use them, and stop referring to the old-school controls. Once that is accomplished, it’s amazing how fun it is to deke the goalie to moving to the right, and then firing off a shot over his left shoulder, which is now open and exposed.

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Geocaching Adventure #10: Lakeside Caching

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Posted by Rob on September 10, 2010 – 1:00 pm
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Today’s geocaching adventures saw me returning to the cemetery to snag the one I couldn’t find yesterday, and then head across the street to the giant lake, which had three caches all around it. It was another cool and breezy morning, and was pretty cloudy, all which make great geocaching weather in my book! Still, despite the coolness and whatnot, I still received a mosquito bite on my cheek, which is a weird place to get bitten and not notice it until you’re home and start to itch. So let’s start this story up right with the return to the cemetery!

As I mentioned previously, there were two caches at the local cemetery, but I was only able to find the one. When I got home yesterday I contacted the cache owner, and she told me what to look for, so I had a better idea of what to keep my eyes open for. When I first arrived at the cemetery and started driving over to the area I have been parking at, I saw a flock of turkeys milling around the gravestones. I was able to get pretty close to them, and they didn’t start to run away until I had started to pass them in the car.

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Geocache Adventure #9: The Search Through the Cemetery

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Posted by Rob on September 9, 2010 – 12:34 pm
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I woke up this morning knowing it would be the perfect day for a geocache. It was a crisp mid-60s and still relatively early in the morning, so I knew there wouldn’t be as many bug attacks. I decided to hit up two different areas of East Greenbush to snag some geocaches…an old railroad line and the local cemetery. I think I found two out of the three caches I was looking for, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Let’s start from the beginning, when I left my house at around 7:15ish and headed to the old railroad path for my first cache of the day.

The path I was to follow was directly off a side road, so I pulled my car over onto the grass, got out, and headed down the trail. What I quickly realized was that this is the same trail that runs right adjacent to our apartment complex, so I could have technically just followed that all the way down, though it would have been one heck of a walk! Eventually my GPS told me to head off the path and into the woods, where the cache would be. After some brief searching through the bramble and brush, I eyed my prize, which wasn’t too well hidden (so long as you happened to be walking in the woods, off the path.)

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Meet Our Second Group of Fosters

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Posted by Rob on September 8, 2010 – 8:22 pm
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Now that are weekends are free and things have died down, Shell and I decided to take on our second group of fosters from the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society. Our last foster was Promise, a lone cat who was getting over a little sickness. This time around we picked up two little kitten brothers who are about five weeks old. They are simply too young to be adopted yet, so we will foster and fatten them up until they are old enough to be adopted, which will be in about three weeks.

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Busy Labor Day Weekend

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Posted by Rob on September 6, 2010 – 8:13 pm
Filed under Board & Card Games, Food & Drink, Geocaching, Movies, My Personal Life, Pets, Sports
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We had a pretty sweet three-day excursion this weekend to see my sister and brother-in-law at their place in Brooklyn. It was an awesome time and we all had a blast. It’s always nice to get together with them, simply because it is so hard to do so.

We arrived there Saturday afternoon after coming into Grand Central and doing some subway hopping to get to her apartment on Greenpoint Ave in Brooklyn. My bro-in-law had ground up some home-made sausage and Cara cooked up some fresh ciabatta bread, so we had some nice sandwiches waiting for us when we arrived. I also got to finally meet their cat Amber (or as they prefer to call her, Puss Puss). She is a very cute, affectionate cat who tends to drool on you if she lays on you for even a brief amount of time. After lunch we hung out for a bit, and then headed out for a walk and some brief geocaching. We found one on a”nature walk” through an industrial section of Brooklyn, which ended up being a pretty scenic area despite all the garbage barges floating nearby. It was Cara and Nick’s first find so they were pretty happy! We then headed down to Newton Barge Terminal Playground for the next geocache. After much confused searching, we found the area where it should have been, but a local bum was literally asleep right on top of the area, so we had to forget about successfully finding it. Read More »

What Shell Said: 9/2/10

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Posted by Rob on September 2, 2010 – 11:13 pm
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Wow, she’s been saying quite a bit lately!

Once again I was playing games in my chair while she slept on the couch. Suddenly she started stirring.

“Rob?”

“Are you alright babes?”

“Where’d you go?”

“I’m right here, where I always am.”

“You weren’t here anymore.”

“No, I’m here now. Is that ok?”

“Yeah…what’s your mom going to say?”

“About what?”

“About the hosting.”

“The hosting?”

“Yeah.”

“I think she’ll be ok with it. What do you think?”

“I don’t think so…”