Wii Review

Too tired last night to write any reviews. They would have been monosyllabic, Wii good, games fun.

Unlike the other consoles out now (Xbox 360, PS3) Nintendo’s Wii comes with a game. Wii Sports is definitely a training title to introduce you to the new controller and nunchuck, which both have motion sensors in them. The graphics are on the plain side, but cute, and the gameplay straightforward, nothing amazing. Lots of reviews seem to focus on that; what they don’t seem to focus on is how much fun it is! We played a little of all the sports yesterday but there is also a fitness training section that we haven’t tried out yet. I really liked the tennis, it was a blast. We played against each other and then later I played against the Wii characters.

Rayman is back, and this time he’s fighting a horde of Raving Rabbids. If you’ve played previous Rayman titles you know that they have a tendency to be insanely hard in parts. This one is no exception, but instead of screaming at the screen in frustation, we’re rolling on the floor laughing. The Rabbids are hilarious! Rayman is stuck in a coluseum and must get through several levels before he can quit for the day (and save his progress). Each level is a mini game. They’re silly and bizarre and really fun. Last night Ryan was working on a mini game where Rayman has to jump rope (by moving the controller up when Rayman jumps). Sounds easy? Well every so often a Raving Rabbid jumps on the screen, screaming and distracting you. Instead of getting angry and frustrated at doing the level over and over again we were both just busting up.

Zelda: Twilight Princess was what we were most looking forward to playing. It definitely lives up to our expectations. The graphics are great, not photo realistic but artsy and dreamy. I thought I’d have a hard time remembering how to use the controller and nunchuck to do all the sword moves and use the different items but I’ve caught on really fast and using the controller as an actual sword, slashing the air with it, is great fun!

That was all we were planning on getting at launch, but Target had a deal on launch day that if you bought 3 games you’d get a gift card back. Who can say no to that, not us. We got Trauma Center: Second Opinion. You play a doctor and use the controller and nunchuck to perform operations on patients. I haven’t played it yet but Ryan enjoyed it.

Now, a lap dogs review by Poppy Seed:

The Wii is horrible. Instead of sitting nicely and letting me on their laps my humans are standing up, jumping around, and swinging these plastic things around. They’re behaving quite odd. I finally thought, ahh lap time, when Kate sat down to play Zelda. But no, she won’t sit still. Her arms are flaying about and that cord between the nunchuck and controller keeps tickling my back. Warning to all other lap dogs– keep the evil Wii out of your house!

Wii!!!!

We got Wii! Tried to get it at Fred Meyer’s at midnight but we were too late, they handed out the tickets around 10:30 and we got there at 11:00. Set an early, early, alarm to get up and go to Target first thing. Sneaky Ryan woke up and left without me. Waited in the rain and cold but he got a ticket!!! Came back and got me and we were there when the store opened. We were able to get a few games and a second controller. Mad rush for the games and controllers! They only had one display up.

Got to go eat something and then set it up. Reviews later today.

Got the song from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stuck in my head “I’ve got a golden ticket of my own!”.

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

Time to start building that ark, the rain just won’t stop. The lawn outside our patio is turning into a marsh with big puddles in the planting beds.
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But it’s the lake that is forming across the street from us that is really amazing. This is the view from our side of the road.
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This is normally a big empty field, it’s road level around the edges and then a depression in the middle with drainpipes at each end. Today it’s a lake.
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These photos were all taken early in the day. The water level is much higher now.

Cran-Apple Tea Ring

Yesterday I tried out a new recipe for a Cran-Apple Tea Ring (Light & Tasty Oct/Nov 2005 Update: Now called Healthy Cooking). First you made the sweet yeast dough. Once it has risen you roll it out and spread the dried cranberry and apple filling over the dough (I substituted almonds for the walnuts the recipe called for).
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Roll that up, jelly-roll style and form into a ring. Cut partway through the ring and turn and seperate slightly so filling is revealed. Let rise again.
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Then bake and drizzle with a yummy orange glaze.
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I’ve seen lots of similar recipes and have been wanting to try one. The rings always look so fancy. It took a long time because there were several steps but none were difficult and the end result was well worth the hassle. Went very well with our omelets for dinner.
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It’s that time again

Today is the start of National Novel Writing Month. For the participants of Nanowrimo the goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. This will be the 4th year Ryan has participated. You can read about his Nanowrimo experience here and track this year’s progress here.

To help get the month off to a good start I baked him some Nanowrimo cupcakes.
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Warning: Writing with coconut is very, very messy.

Planned Power Outage

The power company has a power outage planned for this Thursday and Friday. We’re not sure it will effect us here but to be on the safe side we will be shutting down the server. This website, along with the other websites we host, will all be unavailable for that time.

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