Wii're Having Fun

My wife, Sarah (with an "h"), called me a few days ago with some exciting news: "Honey, we're having a baby!" "There are some Nintendo Wii games consoles in stock, and it's okay with me to get one!"



Thanks to the van's onboard transporter, Bennett (aka "Newbie Driver") and I were soon standing at a cash register waiting to buy a Wii game console + a Wii game, both of us grinning like a cat that'd just figured out how to open a hamster cage door.



When we got home, first I showed Tim (aka "Triple T") a Mario Brothers Wii game we also got.



Triple T said, "Dude, why'd ya git a wee game when wee kan't play it?" (Tim doesn't spell well when he's talking.)



I motioned for Newbie Driver to come into the rec room (aka "The Teen Cave") and show Triple T the Wii console we just bought. Triple T just sat there smiling the biggest grin of his brief life... like a hamster that'd just figured out how to boobytrap a hamster cage door.



Soon, both Triple T and Newbie Driver were setting up, configuring, arguing (I mean "discussing"), and then playing games on the Wii.



When I went upstairs, I think I heard what sounded like a soft crying or whimpering sound coming from the older game consoles, now forgotten.



next week: The Sega Genesis and the Nintendo 64 stage a protest.

SUV LUV

For the first time in about two years, my SUV finally works correctly and no longer hates me.



What was wrong with the vehicle?  The main thing was its EGR valve needing to be replaced.  According to Wikipedia, an "EGR valve is an imaginary part name commonly used by auto mechanics when they don't know the correct name for a part."  [Editor's note: the EGR valve is a real part]



The picture in this blog post is of me celebrating after getting back my now perfectly functioning SUV.  I love it!!!  [Editor's note: it's really some random picture borrowed from another post on this blog.]

The Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades

I'm finally wearing contacts again, after a few years of having to wear glasses.



Now that I'm again wearing contacts, I can also resume wearing sunglasses.  Yay!  Sunglasses, as we all know, are the fashion accessory of the über-cool.  And as a card-carrying member of the über-cool, I'm glad to again wear my tribe's identification with pride.  Yeah!



As a pleasant side-effect, sunglasses also help protect my eyes from intense sunlight.  Though important, we all know that feature pales in comparison with coolness.



Editor's note: the blog post's title comes from the song "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"

Atomic Time On My Wrist

Hey, boys and girls. Guess who has a new watch????The picture in this post doesn't look exactly like my new watch, but it's close enough. Some cool features of this new watch:

1. It shows the current date and time simultaneously. So you don't need to press a button in order to find out what day of the month today is. Having to press a button just to see what day of the month it is, was the most frustrating aspect of my life. And now that frustration is gone! Yeah! :)


2. It automatically sets itself to the atomic clock radio signal coming out of Colorado. So it's time is always correct! And, this also means that the watch is nuclear-powered! I think.


3. It also includes a world time feature where you can have it show the current time in some other part of the world. I have my watch set to show the time in London, which is the same as UTC. Being able to quickly know the current time UTC is really, really useful. Seriously.

And, of course, it's water resistant to a depth of 50 meters. Which will be helpful for all the times I go driving out on Lake Michigan.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Lost in Time... or Watch Frying

Lately I've felt like I'm lost in time.  I've lost all sense of the precise passage of time.  I'm drifting aimlessly, unstuck, not knowing when I am.



I used to wear my watch continuously, rarely removing it from my wrist.



One evening over a week ago, I washed my hands.  This in itself is not terribly unusual.  Nor is it unusual for such a procedure to get some water on my watch.  It never bothers me when that happens, as my watch was "water resistant", capable of withstanding water pressures up to 50 meters deep.  (Which has been really useful, given how often I go diving.)



After drying my hands, I wondered what the current time was.  Since the room was rather dark, I pressed the watch's backlight button.



This is when, gentle reader, the excitement began.



My watch sparked and lit up like the clock tower in Back to the Future when Marty arranged for it to be struck by lightning, thus powering the De Lorean's flux capacitor.  Only, my watch is not a clock tower.  Or a cool De Lorean time machine car.  And despite being designed for water depths of up to 50 meters, my watch apparently was not designed to keep out water when a button was pressed.  Which makes sense.  Why would anyone want to press any button on a watch when that watch was slightly wet?



So, my watch died.  And I've been lost in time ever since, unstuck, never knowing when I am.



Editor's note: The blog post's title was inspired by The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.