Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band

We got Guitar Hero III for the Wii when it first came out and gave it to our kids for Christmas 2007. Fun game, played a few times, but never got a second guitar to have dueling players.

Well, Rock Band for the Wii came out last week and we got it just for fun. This game is very similar to Guitar Hero except it comes with AND can have a guitar player, drummer and a singer with the option of adding a second guitar. Now, four of our family of five can play this game at the same time. The drums are really fun, but difficult.

I like Rock Band better as far as being family friendlier. More of us can play at one time, plus the characters are not quite so hard rock as in Guitar Hero III. I also personally like the song list much better in Rock Band. So, I decided to sell Guitar Hero III so we could use that money to go buy a second guitar for Rock Band since the Guitar Hero is not compatible with Rock Band.

Being a newspaper guy, there was no way I was placing this for sale on Craigslist. I placed an ad for free in our paper since the item we were selling was under $100. We ran the ad for 2 days and got 3 calls. They came today to pick it up. Whew, good thing it sold as I was almost tempted to see if Craigslist would work for me.

Now I hear Guitar Hero is going to start selling a new game soon that will include drums and a microphone also to compete with Rock Band. Looks cool, but I am going to stick with Rock Band.

Sunday Visits

My calling in church is the Stake Executive Secretary. As part of this calling we, that being the Stake Presidency, visit a different ward or unit each week. The one week a month we don't travel is the first Sunday of the month (Fast Sunday).

This week we visited the East Wenatchee 1st ward. It was their Ward Conference and President Webb (the Stake President) and I were the only members of the Stake Presidency to visit. Reason for this was the 1st Counselor (President Bennion), 2nd Counselor (President Christensen) and Stake Clerk were all out of town.

With it being their ward conference, there is the sustaining of church leaders that needs to take place and one of the counselors usually does this from the pulpit. Well, since no one else was available, it fell upon me to do. It was neat to do and was easy enough, as it is all outlined for you on a print out to read.

The above picture is a picture of our Stake Center that I took just over a month ago for our Stake Conference program and didn't have it saved in color. This is the building that the East Wenatchee 1st Ward meets in.

Weekend Projects

Mowing the Lawn

The weekend is always filled with projects and one constant one is ALWAYS mowing the lawn.

As I was mowing this morning around 10:00 a.m., it was HOT!!! It got up to 99 degrees today and it sure felt like it was near 90 when I was out mowing earlier.

I was mowing in the backyard and would go under the shade of the trees and boy did that make a difference. Felt 10 degrees or more cooler. And as I walked under the trees it reminded me of a situation we had encountered with our neighbor a week and a half ago.

Trees

When we first moved into our home about 6 years ago, there were no trees just shrubs. And the shrubs were planted haphazardly throughout the lot. No rhyme or reason to any of it. We moved all the shrubs to other spots in the yard and planted some trees. We put in 6 willow trees, 3 pine trees and a quaking aspen. Realizing this was way too many trees, this year we pulled out 3 of the willows and 2 pine trees all from the back yard. Still have to work on getting the stumps out and putting grass over them.

Well, our neigbor came over and told us that we "have to cut back our willow tree" that overhanges in her yard (see picture below on the right). She said that they grow 3 feet each day and they are too messy.
Needless to say, we were not going to trim back the trees or take them out. These trees provide a little bit of privacy and create the much needed shade in the hot summer sun. Alecia volunteered for us to go talk to our neighbor after dinner and I did not want to go. The neighbor was all up in arms about the leaves dropping on her garden and the sticks that blow out of the trees when the wind blows. I said that was an act of God and not our doing. I also said that we don't throw these things into her yard on purpose like she does with our yard. YES, she actually picks up the leaves and sticks and throws them over the fence into our yard. Things were getting a little heated at this point and Alecia had to calm us down.

I told her she has every right to trim the tree herself up to the property line but not an inch over. Then I volunteered to trim it myself up a little way, but not all the way up. Better to do it myself than have her hire someone else to do it and look totally bad. If you enlarge the picture above, you can see a notch on the bottom right corner as not to hang over too far into her yard.

Cars & Bikes

The next project was to work on rearranging the parking situation in our garage.

With the price of gas so high these days (just paid $4.14 gallon at Costco today), I decided to start riding my bike to work each day and let Alecia drive the smaller car that gets better gas mileage. She takes the kids to swim team practice every day and has to go back and forth more than 2 times.

With Alecia driving the small car, it is usually parked on the side of the garage without the automatic garage door opener. She wouldn't park the car in the garage because of having to get in and out of the car and would just leave it in the driveway to soak up the summer sun. Boy did it get hot in there.

So, I rearranged some things to make it so the mini-van could be parked on the manual garage door side and the small car could go on the side with the automatic door opener. Now there is no reason to let the small car sit out in the sun and get super hot the next time she drive it.

40th Birthday Surprise

A week and a half ago, my wife told me not to do anything special for her 40th birthday. I thought "SHOOT" I haven't done anything. So the next day I called Alecia's best friend, Jen, and asked if we could use her house for Alecia's 40th. I wanted to invite those closest to Alecia and knew I couldn't get everyone as I didn't want to take advantage of Jen's hospitality.

As the week flew by I would try to do things while Alecia wasn't around: Making the invite while at work and sending it out by email. Scanning the pictures of her throughout the years and printing them out to putting them in frames. Making the prune bouquet out of the trunk of my car. Buying the balloons, paper plates, crepe paper and finally the buying and making of the food for her favorite cake and hors d'oeuvres for the party at Jen's.

For part of her birthday I decided to invite people to bring an hors d'oeuvre and a gag gift. I almost changed my mind on the gag gifts at the last moment as Alecia was going through a "mid-life" crisis moment the night before her birthday (Sunday, June 22, 2008). Almost in tears she was saying how tired she was of being told she was old (mind you NOT by me) and that she hadn't accomplished anything in her life (never mind the 3 most awesome children and husband she has). The next day the party came and everything went fine. She laughed at the gag gifts and I think felt good about herself.

Those who came were Jen & Scott, Brandon & Tammy, Dale & Kirsten and Sandra.

You would never guess Alecia is 40. She is beautiful and loved by her family. Alecia, I hope you really had a good birthday and that you may realize that you don't look a day over 29. We all love you very much.

Cake and Hors d'oeuvres

The morning and afternoon of Alecia's birthday was time cooking and preparing for her party that night at Jen's house.It started with me cooking more Angle Food cake for her party while she was at swim practice with the kids. Her favorite cake to have on her birthday is Angle Food cake with whipping cream and strawberries. The house smelled sweet with the angle food cooking and with Alecia gone for only 1 hour I had to think of a way to get the sweet smell gone.

I went around the house lighting matches, spraying Febreeze and opening up the windows. This was around 7:30 a.m. The wind was blowing so it helped a lot. Then I put the cooked caked in the trunk of my car with Saran Wrap on top to cool. I think I accomplished my goal as Alecia had no idea that I had made any extra cake.

Next was cooking and preparing Sweet & Sour Pineapple Appetizers and Wingers Chicken. I couldn't hide the fact that I was cooking these to go to Jen's house, but she thought it would only be Jen & Scott and kids and our family. She thought is was a lot of appetizers, but I kept saying I could eat half of them if I didn't have dinner.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Appetizers

1 (15 1/4 oz.) can pineapple chunks, undrained
1 (8 1/2 oz.) can whole water chestnuts, drained
16 slices bacon, cut in half
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup tomato catsup
1/4 cup water
2 TBS. red wine vinegar
1 TBS. cornstarch
1 TBS. soy sauce

Drain pineapple, reserving 1/2 cup juice. Cut water chestnuts in half. Pre-cook bacon a little to where they are still soft and haven't crisped up. Wrap bacon around water chestnut halves; top with pineapple chuncks and secure with wooden toothpicks. Lay on cooking sheet and set aside.
In small saucepan, over med-high heat, cook and stir reserved pineapple juice, brown sugar, catsup, water, vinegar, cornstarch and soy sauce until mixture thickens and begins to boil.
Brush pineapple appetizers with sauce. Broil 8 inches from heat source for 8 minutes on each side or until bacon is cooked. Brushing sauce occasionally. Serve with remaining sauce.

Winger's Chicken Wings

I got this recipe from my brother Bret (Julie's husband). It is a copy-cat recipe that has been modified (my kind of "simple design")

1 Bottle of Franks Red Hot Sauce
2 Cup Brown Sugar
5 Tablespoon Honey

Mix in pan and heat (on moderate heat).

Cook pre-breaded chicken according to instructions (I used frozen chicken wings, soaked them overnight in salt water and then cooked in the oven for about 40 min. at 350 degrees), then submerge into Winger's sauce. Serve with Blue Cheese Dressing and Celery.

Note: Some internet recipe's call for heating the sauce to a moderate boil for 10 minutes. I found this to really thicken the sauce more than I like, so I just heat/mix it until bubbles begin to form then take it off the stove.

These were a big hit at the party and people commented on how moist they were. The sauce was excellent. It made enough for 2 batches.

1968

Part of Alecia's party was first sending out the invite by email. Below is what it looked like.

Next part was to decorate. I had the day off, but also had a previous lunch meeting that had been scheduled with the United way for me to attend. I told Alecia that the meeting would be 2 hours, knowing full well it would only be 1 hour. So I went to Jen's and set up pictures of Alecia throughout the years in picture frames.Next I researched events from 1968. I initially wanted to try and only find events that actually occurred on June 23, 1968, but that proved to be too hard. You know it was hard when the only thing I could find was the birthday of Elvira, Mistress of the Dark was born on that day. So I ended up going with the events for the whole year. Here is a copy of the list that I put together

Major Events from 1968

Alecia was born June 23, 1968

Other events & statistics that occured in 1968, some not quite so major.

• Elvira (Mistress of the Dark). Born June 23, 1968
• Vietnam War ongoing
• Lyndan B. Johnson is President of the United States
• Green Bay Packers won Super Bowl II
• Martin Luther King, Jr. is shot dead at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
• U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
• The Beatles announce the creation of Apple Records in a New York press conference
• U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is shot.
• The soap opera One Life to Live premieres on ABC.
• Pope Paul VI publishes the encyclical entitled Humanae Vitae, condemning birth control.
• 150 women protest against the Miss America Pageant.
• The 1968 XIX Summer Olympic Games are held in Mexico City, Mexico.
• Aristotle Onassis and Jacqueline Kennedy marry.
• U.S. presidential election, Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
• Yale University announces it is going co-educational.
• The Heidi game: NBC cuts off the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raiders-New York Jets football game to broadcast the pre-scheduled Heidi.
• The White Album is released by The Beatles
• The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is dedicated
• The1968 XIX Winter Olympic Games are held in Grenoble, France
• US Explodes experimental hydrogen Bomb.
• The Emergency 911 Telephone service is started
• The first automated teller machine (ATM) in the U.S.
• The first Big Mac goes on sale in McDonalds
• The unemployment rate, at 3.3 percent
• Average Cost of new house $14,950.00
• Average Income per year $7,850.00
• Average Monthly Rent $130.00
• Gas per Gallon 34 cents
• Average Cost of a new car $2,822.00
• Movie Ticket $1.50
• Top Movies of 1968
1. The Graduate
2. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
3. Gone With the Wind (reissue)
4. The Valley of the Dolls
5. The Odd Couple
6. Planet of the Apes
7. Rosemary’s Baby
8. The Jungle Book
9. Yours, Mine and Ours
10. The Green Berets
• Top Songs of 1968
1.”Judy In Disguise” ... John Fred & His Playboy Band
2.”Green Tambourine” ... Lemon Pipers
3.”Love Is Blue” ... Paul Mauriat
4.”The Dock of the Bay” ... Otis Redding
5.”Honey” ... Bobby Goldsboro
6.”Tighten Up” ... Archie Bell and the Drells
7.”Mrs. Robinson” ... Simon and Garfunkel
8.”This Guy’s in Love With You” ... Herb Alpert
9.”Grazing in the Grass” ... Hugh Masekela
10.”Hello, I Love You” ... The Doors
• Most Popular Television Shows
1. Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (NBC)
2. Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (CBS)
3. Bonanza (NBC)
4. Mayberry R.F.D. (CBS)
5. Family Affairs (CBS)
6. Gunsmoke (CBS)
7. Julia (NBC)
8. The Dean Martin Show (NBC)
9. Here’s Lucy (CBS)
10. The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS)
• Academy Awards
Best Picture: “Oliver!”
Best Actor: Cliff Robertson ... “Charly”
Best Actress: Barbra Streisand ... “Funny Girl”

I put her pictures on the laptop as a screen saver and a few snippets of events from 1968 between the photos. Finally, I decorated with black balloons and crepe paper.