In keeping with the gaming theme of recent posts, I must share the photo above. I used a gift certificate from my sisters-in-law they sent as a thank-you for helping them with their new jewelery business (their site will be unveiled soon) to buy the much-heralded Guitar Hero II. There is no doubt this is an amazing game – do not pass go, do not collect $200 – go out and get this game if you have an Xbox 360 or the Playstation. Sam, of course, loves it as well as you can see! Amy also manages to mostly kick my butt at this one – hmm, perhaps her years in the music conservatory finally paid off? Anyway, I’m just trying to figure out how to hold the darn guitar in a way that doesn’t result in the tips of my fingers on my left hand going numb and staying that way for going on 48 hours now. It seems to be getting better, but I’m so uncoordinated that I have to mash the buttons on the guitar neck far harder than necessary. I seem to keep playing Matthew Sweet’s Girlfriend over and over again, but my scores are far behind all my Xbox Live buddies. I’m somewhere in the 350,000’s on the leaderboard, while my friend Juanita Winters is up around 25,000 worldwide. Scary, really. Can’t wait for the reported 2007 Summer release of their update with only 80s music, or the late-year Rock Band – where multiple players will be able to join together online on bass, drums, vocals and guitar.
Tag Archives: sam
gametime with the kiddies
Fudgehogs. Horstachios. Seedos. Doc Patchingo.
These are but a few of the characters Sam has grown to talk about pretty much incessantly since I bought and began to play the very addictive (and very kid friendly) Viva Pinata game for the Xbox 360, recipient of a ‘great’ 8.3 rating from Gamespot.com. I read a piece in Parents Magazine praising the games “”excellent production values, universal human values, appeal to children, and age appropriateness.” Well, I don’t know about all that, but it’s innocent, colorful, and has appealing gameplay for yours truly and entertains the heck out of Sammy. And it has it’s own TV show. Anyway, Sam sits beside me with a controller (sans batteries) and ‘plays’ along with Dad. If you have kiddies in the house, I highly recommend this one.
Trotz 2.0
So we’ve been keeping this somewhat quiet, but we’ve passed a major milestone and are ready to let everyone know. I am so happy to announce that little Trotz #2 is expected to arrive this October (31st, to be exact), and both mom and baby-to-be are doing very well as we finish up our 18th week. Amy has been a bit sicker than the first time out, but it’s certainly helped to know more-or-less what we were expecting. We’ve had several advanced ultrasound sessions and this baby is MUCH more active than Sam was – flipping around, moving arms and legs, etc. Sam has decided that he’s having a sister – but for now, we are declining to find out that tidbit of info in advance. We’ll see if we hold off or not. Look for more updates here as we progress.
eager readers
After a long day at Zoo Atlanta (it was a free Turner weekend), we all ended up on the couch reading our books. Amy took note of how sweet it was that we were all reading together – a perfect rainy Saturday afternoon activity. I was reading the umpteenth John Sanford novel, Amy was reading some trashy Oprah novel (While I was Gone by Sue Miller), and Sam was reading his favorite of late – his Sesame Street Dictionary. I promise – this picture is unstaged, other than my having to run and setup the camera on self-timer.