Guitar Hero 2

My plan was this: Get off the airplane, head straight over to Best Buy and buy Guitar Hero 2. It's what I did, but what I didn't count on was the Best Buy closes at 8 PM on Sundays, so I was 15 mintues too late.

I did run out and buy it during lunch today. My friend and I played all night tonight and unlocked all the songs on medium. We're not experts and frankly, he's better than me at this point. I have some practicing to do!

BGG.con update

I just sent this out to my gaming group, so if you're in that, it's pretty much the same thing.

We're all having a great time!! We've been playing lots of games: Imperial, Emira, Space Dealer, Time's Up, Werewolf, a couple prototypes (Homesteaders and something else), etc. Jeff won a prize in the drawing last night: Pitch Car with the expansion set. The library is huge and there are tons of games from Essen.

I think the one we've all played and enjoy pretty much is Space Dealer. It's a space themed simultaneous played game with timers to regulate the actions. It comes with a CD that plays background music and serves as the timer. I think Lincoln already has one on order and I think I might pick up a second copy so we can try the 8 player version. It's neat, very different.

Aaron entered the Texas Hold'em tournament and did pretty well. I think he said he ended up 13th out of over 100 people who entered.

L&N, Ron, Aaron and I were on a team and did Dave's puzzle hunt yesterday. It was stunningly fun!! We had a great time. I was SO impressed with all the puzzles and the whole overall continuity. I loved it. We all did. And we were all made famous in one of the clues when Dave used us all in a Puerto Rico session report puzzle. Fabulous!!

Hmmmm.... other than that, lots of late night gaming - favorites are Time's Up and Werewolf (which I will play tonight).

More BBQ

OK, I have eaten MORE BBQ today. My room at my hotel is beautiful too. I love it. They have this heavenly bed and it's gorgeous. Pictures to come.

And I've recruited a Guitar Hero II practice person for next week!!!

More updates re: BGG.con as they come!

Guitar Hero II

And as a side note, we stopped by Best Buy today to pick up the new Gnarls Barkley CD and while I was there I saw the new Guitar Hero game!!!!! It's out!!!! I'm buying it on Sunday when I get home from BGG.con. You can play cooperatively. I talked to a guy later at EB Games and he said he heard it's harder than the original. I can't wait!!! Who's coming over to practice??

Barbecue (BBQ) Galore!!

OK, first off, I've had zero internet access. I'm posting this from a Schlotzsky's Deli. They actually have computers here for their customers. Awesome!

We have been eating BBQ, BBQ and more BBQ. Now I know why my friend Dave hates L.A. BBQ. It sucks. It's so awesome.

Monday, we ate at Sonny Bryan's in downtown Dallas and had brisket sandwiches. Then we drove down to Austin, but on the way we stopped in Georgetown, TX at the Monument Cafe. I will have to post pictures of this place when I get home. The inside is gorgeous, just like an old diner. We ordered pie: pecan, fried blueberry and monument chocolate pie with a pecan crust. All of these were delicious!!!

Today, we stopped by Black's BBQ in Lockhart and then cruised over to Sonny's BBQ for more!!

We drove down to the Alamo and then went to the San Antonio Riverwalk, which is gorgeous!! More later!!

My vacation is starting tomorrow!

I know that technically, since I didn't go into work on Friday, my vacation started then, but since I arrived in Phoenix, it's been go-go-go! There was the bachelorette slumber party on Friday night, the wedding and all the fixins on Saturday and then today, I slept in til 11:30 AM!!! I hardly ever sleep in that late! Lounged around in my PJs watching football til about 2 PM and then shaved my legs and took a shower. Went shopping (got some cute clothes!) and then went to Shane's mom's house to cook dinner for her parents, her uncle and his wife and kids and Shane's mom's friend Ann. The only thing I really "cooked" was roasted yellow squash and zucchini. It was delicious. I love yellow squash!

Now we're home and I have to transfer some of my stuff from my gigantic suitcase into a duffel bag because it's too heavy. They let me slide at Burbank, but I am positive it's over 50 lbs. so I'm moving all the heavy stuff to a duffel bag borrowed from Shane's sister Alix.

Speaking of, Alix and Ryan were at the airport to leave on their 2 1/2 week honeymoon to Europe and their flight from Phoenix to Minneapolis was delayed and ultimately cancelled. So, they are still here, hoping to catch a flight tomorrow.

I know I'm supposed to blog everyday, but I am wondering if how that will work since I won't have as much internet access as I have this weekend. We'll see!

I do feel like tomorrow is really the first day of vacation though. And, so far, foodwise, it's been a great vacation! Fried chicken on Friday and I've had steak every day!! Today I had some for breakfast AND dinner! Woo-hoo!

Bad manicures

I had my nails done yesterday at a salon here in Phoenix. The first thing that I noticed was that all the ladies working there were white. Actually, more accurately, they weren't Vietnamese. I got the crappiest manicure of my life there. And I had to pay $15 for it. The Vietnamese ladies charge me $8 and do a much better job. I ended up just buying nail polish at Target today and repainting my nails myself.

The best fried chicken of my life!

I had the best fried chicken of my life today. It was at Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe in downtown Phoenix. Here's a picture of Shane outside of Mrs. White's.




The chicken was some of the best I've ever eaten. It's a total hole in the wall and it's only open from 11 AM - 5 PM Monday through Friday. All meals are $8.80 plus tax and it includes the main portion of the meal and your choice of two sides. And, they also have sweet tea!! It was pure heaven for lunch. I now will have to make sure that whenever I'm going through Phoenix I am passing through on a weekday so I can check out Mrs. White's for lunch!!

Here's a picture of the fried chicken:


Here's a picture of the fried pork chops:


Here's a picture of the list of sides you have to choose from (yes it's written on the wall):



One unusual thing about Mrs. White's is that you order from the waitress, but when it comes time to pay, you just go up to the cashier and tell them what you had. They ring you up in literally about 1 second. They don't even add it up on a calculator. I walked up and said, "We had two meals, two drinks and a piece of pineapple cake." He (Mrs. White's son) said, "That'll be $24.96." He didn't even hesitate.

Mrs. White's Golden Rule Cafe
808 E. Jefferson St.
Phoenix, AZ 85034
(602) 262-9256

Open M-F 11 AM - 5 PM

Vacation looms (and Christmas)!

My vacation starts tomorrow! I'm heading out to Phoenix for a wedding, then heading to Texas for some sightseeing and a convention!

I already feel like November is slipping away. My goal is to get all my Christmas shopping done by 11/30/06 so I can enjoy December stress-free! And I can bake lots of cookies and decorate my tree and do all that fun stuff.

I did actually start my Christmas shopping, but more so, I've been making a list of what I want to buy. I'm hoping to do as much online shopping as possible to avoid the malls. They are going to be crazy!!

NaBloPoMo

E is participating in NaBloPoMo. Basically, a pledge to post every day in the blog. I guess I should try that too although it might be impossible since I'll be out of town for 10 days. Oh well, let's see if I can do it! This is the first post of the month.