Another weekend gone by

I'm ready for my close-up

Yesterday we took the kids shopping to get a few things to keep at our place. I was getting a bit tired of Joe’s son wearing these terrible knit shorts that don’t even match the shirts he brings. We bought him shirts but he took most of them home and the ones left at our place were getting too small. He does have some nice shorts at home but never seems to bring them over. I can’t trust that he or his sister will remember everything they need (they’re only kids, after all) each weekend, and since their mother lets them pack their own bags without overseeing what they’re bringing, she’s useless.

Anyway, the boy got a pair of shorts, 3 shirts, boxers, and flip-flops. The girl only got a shirt, a pair of shorts, and flip flops. She wasn’t as interested in getting stuff and I wasn’t going to push it since I don’t have a problem with what she wears. I just felt bad since the boy got more but she didn’t seem to care. She’s not very materialistic. In fact, when she got checks for her graduation she asked us to put the money in her savings account.

Joe took the boy to a school event in the afternoon so I made lunch for the girl and we hung out til the boys got back. We wanted to go to the park but wouldn’t you know it, the second the boys pulled into the garage it started raining so that was out. We ended up playing board games and the Wii instead. My arms were sore this morning which is a true testament to a) how out of shape I am, b) how infrequently I play on the Wii, or c) a & b. I think you know the answer to that.

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It was a beautiful day out today but now it’s cool and rainy out. Other than not being able to fit a bike ride in before the rain came, I’m satisfied with how the day went. We got a little shopping in after dropping off the kids and then headed to St. James Farm Forest Preserve. We’ve been wanting to visit ever since Joe and the girl put in some volunteer time cleaning up the grounds in early May. When we arrived a bit before 10 am we ate the sandwiches I had made and then explored the area.

A foal with his mother We had the place to ourselves for over an hour which was nice but by 11:30 there were more and more people walking around so we decided to check out Danada Equestrian Center where there were not one, but two young foals. One was born a month ago and the other was just born last night. Talk about great timing! I can’t say I’ve ever seen foals before so it was a real treat to watch them walk around. Yes, even the 12 hour old foal was on her legs in the barn. Imagine a 12 hour old baby being able to walk!

I posted videos of the two foals on my YouTube account and I’ll be slowly adding photos to Flickr in the coming week. Check back here for links.

— UPDATE —

St. James Farm Forest Preserve photoset at Flickr

Indiana Beach

Saturday we took the kids to Indiana Beach. This time we remembered they’re an hour ahead and got there before the rides started at 11 am. We didn’t get our super premium parking, however, because they are building a new rollercoaster right by the entrance and the in-park lot was blocked. We also had to walk further to get into the park.

The first thing I noticed was how they repainted a lot of the rides including the skyride. It used to be all white and now it’s yellow, pink, green, and blue. Not sure how I feel about it to be honest. It’s a bit odd. They also sealed the boardwalk so it is black instead of gray for the time being. Nothing else seemed to have changed.

Boardwalk

The weather was much better than last year; I didn’t sweat nearly as much and I didn’t burn at all because I put on enough sunblock and wore a hat.

Everyone got ride wristbands ($23 each) but Joe and I didn’t go on a lot of rides. The kids went on the swings the most. The lines got a bit long as the day wore on. In fact, even though we were there longer than in the past (10:30 am – 4:30 pm), we seemed to do less. We didn’t play any games or miniature golf.

I dragged the kids on the Shafer Queen for a half hour tour of Lake Shafer after a lunch of yummy tacos. It’s an Indiana Beach tradition. You have to ride the Shafer Queen at least once and they had never been on in the years we’ve been going.

Next year we plan on taking Thursday and Friday off and going for the evening ride time. I think it will be cool with all the lights, plus there’s no sun threatening to cook you.

All Indiana Beach photos.

New Media

We took the kids shopping this morning so the girl could pick out a camera for her upcoming 8th grade trip to Washington D.C. Her mother was going to buy her one but after talking to her we agreed to pick one out (since we have more experience buying cameras) and split the cost. I planned to research models online last night but it’s actually pretty difficult to find reviews on low-end digitals now that there’s a bazillion on the market with new models coming out every month.

The one we chose was just released last month, in fact. It’s an extremely vibrant Polaroid we tested at Walmart. I originally thought a Nikon would be the way to go but for the life of me even I couldn’t figure out how to change scenes on the new models. We definitely needed something more intuitive for a beginner. Plus the camera just looks fun. We also bought rechargeable batteries and a charger, a camera bag, and two 2GB SD cards so the girl can take tons of photos with her friends without worrying about running out of space.

When we got home I showed her how to load the batteries and memory card and then we went outside to practice taking pictures. Some of the photos came out blurry but some came out really good, I just can’t show you the good ones since they’re of her brother and I have a policy against posting public photos of the kids. I posted the photos I took (with my own camera) of some flowers, however. You’re welcome.

The girl was thrilled with the video option on her new camera and it must take a lot of juice because she burned through a set of regular AA’s in no time. Good thing we got rechargeable batteries for her trip, huh? Her excitement inspired me to take a few videos of Oreo. After many failed attempts she has finally figured out how to get to the top of the cage via the water bottle and I caught it “on tape”. It’s the first time I’ve ever edited a video so please be gentle if you leave a comment. I’m a video virgin.

Obsessed with video games

The kids couldn’t get enough of the video games today. If they weren’t playing the Wii, they wanted to play the PS2, GameCube, or Nintendo 64 (those are just the ones actually hooked up; we own way too many gaming consoles). The boy is particularly addicted. After we told the kids we were done with the video games for the night, he kept asking, “Can I play [insert system name here]?” Apparently five hours of the Wii wasn’t enough. ;) Although at least with the Wii they were moving around. It’s probably the most exercise we’ve all gotten in a week. :)

We played between 5-8 games of Pictionary Jr. (I ended up ordering it from Amazon.com since none of the local stores were carrying it anymore) after we took a Wii break because the kids really liked it. We also fit a little Easter egg hunt into the mix. To say the day was full would be an understatement.

More computer stuff

After a trip to Fry’s Electronics today, my new system is finally complete. I had to buy a PS/2 to USB adapter for my wireless mouse/keyboard combo as well as an adapter (serial port to USB) to hook up my laser printer. Of course it turns out that second cable was unnecessary as my printer has a USB port and that was the only way I could get Vista to recognize it anyway. I spent a good two hours screwing around with the printer and drivers and all I needed to do was connect it with the USB port I didn’t realize it had until I started looking at the setup manual on the manufacturer’s website. I feel like an idiot, but at least I eventually figured it out.

I also bought new speakers to replace the ugly beige set I owned. I’m pleasantly surprised with their sound quality considering the price ($20 after $10 mail-in rebate). I’m not entirely surprised, though – I’ve always loved Creative’s products; my sound card is made by them too. There are only two brands I’ll even consider when it comes to speakers – Creative or Logitech. In fact, I have a cheaper set of Creative speakers at work (also purchased at Fry’s two years ago) and Joe has a Logitech set on his LCD (I got for him last Christmas) for gaming.

The girl got her iPod Nano case at Fry’s too. I’m not sure whether it had anything to do with me, or mere coincidence, but she bought the same case I own for my iPod. I showed it to her last night, so she knew it too. Hmmm.

We went to Red Robin for lunch. We don’t go their often and I really enjoy their food, even if I always get the same thing (Ensanda chicken platter).

Later while I was getting dinner ready we played the new Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition. I’ve never been a fan of Monopoly, but I don’t hate this version nearly as much as the original, even if they seem to think The Cubs are the true Chicago baseball team (suck it). We decided on a time to end the game because I swear we would have been there all night! Oh and I lost! I came in dead last with 7.5 mil or something. Blah.

I made chocolate chip cookies for dessert which came out nice and soft. Then I battled the damn printer for over an hour. But all is good now!

Also earlier I downloaded some free software – OpenOffice since I don’t own Office 2007 and don’t want to pay $150 to view/edit Excel files and MediaMonkey because I’m still looking for the best ripping/encoding software. I have yet to find one application that does everything how I want it to. Winamp crashes after I transfer music to my iPod (if it’s not connected, it never crashes), iTunes won’t name the files in the manner I want, Yahoo! Jukebox doesn’t like some of the CDs I own and refused to rip them, and MusicMatch wants you to pay $30+ a year to use their service. Ugh. MediaMonkey is ok for ripping tracks but the interface leaves something to be desired. It also uses Amazon.com for looking up album art instead of Gracenote. One of these days I will find the holy grail.

Oh and speaking of album art… for some reason the girl’s nano won’t display album art, even if it’s encoded in the file, unless the file is transferred to her iPod via iTunes. I don’t seem to have that problem (for the most part), so I’m perplexed. I tried it with several songs and the only way to get her nano to display the album cover was to delete the file and re-transfer it using iTunes. What a PITA.