Video Games we are currently into & recently played:
Rock Band
Guitar Hero II & III
Super Mario Galaxy
Assassin’s Creed
Mass Effect
Call of Duty 4
Portal
Silent Hill Origins
Bioshock
Catan
Puzzle Quest

Board Games we are currently into:
Settlers of Catan
Carcassonne
Zombie Fluxx
Apples to Apples
Chrononauts

We’ve recently been getting into board games again so I’m very interested in hearing any suggestions you have for fun games for 2-6 people. Card-based games have been pretty popular amongst our friends, so that would be priority. Jules and I love Catan and Carcassonne so anything in that vein would be good as well.

Also, if you know of any good deals on board games online, please let me know. I’ve had a great experience ordering from Fun Again Games but am on the lookout for additional places to shop.

I’ve been promising photos of our furnished apartment for a few months now, so here they are.

New haircut! It’s much nicer than before. It’s strange changing my hairstyle after having the same one for almost 10 years.

(I was going to post about these months ago but I didn’t get a picture until just today!)

Vibram Five Fingers are “Barefooting” shoes. They are exactly what they seem: a protective foot covering which allows you to run around barefoot without the risk of stepping on dangerous items.

According to their website:

When you go barefoot, your movements become the movements of a child—playful and sensitive, yet purposeful and confident. You experience the unbound joy of stepping, hopping, and running across any surface on earth, simply to get from here to there.

FiveFingers® footwear frees you to relive that sensation. Unlike conventional shoes that insulate you from your surroundings, FiveFingers footwear deepens your connection to the earth and your natural environment. It enhances your tactile sense of touch and feel, making you acutely aware of your body and dramatically improving both balance and agility. Because wearing Vibram FiveFingers is so close to going barefoot, you enjoy the health and performance benefits of barefooting without some of the risks.

Outdoor enthusiasts have found FiveFingers to be the ideal crossover shoe for multiple sports and activities—from ChiRunning and bouldering to kayaking and windsurfing. And our customers continually discover new and creative uses for our alternative performance footwear.

I only managed to wear them once since I got them in September as the weather had already begun to turn cold and wet, so it’s pretty difficult to give more than a fleeting impression of what they’re like. I’ll be sure to update once the weather warms up this spring and I have more opportunity to wear them. The thing that struck me about them right away was how absolutely strange it feels having material between my toes. It separates them all by a few millimeters, which doesn’t sound like much, but it feels a bit uncomfortable. I’m sure that’s something one would get used to after awhile, but it was very noticeable that first day. The other thing I felt while wearing them was the constant urge to run. Whenever I was outside I just felt like sprinting off like I did when I was young and ran around the farm barefoot. I ran across the street on my way home and it felt exhilarating! I love that feeling.

Oh yes…it goes without saying that these are guaranteed to generate many curious stares from those around you (if they notice.) I wore them to work and only one person happened to notice! I’m really looking forward to spring now. :D A big thank you to Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing who first posted about these back in July.

The red square Tetris block (mostly complete!) I was able to complete this in one sitting without pain!

For my next project I’ll be crocheting this with Granny Squares. (Catan blanket can wait.) I just picked up the technique last night and it looks like I can finish one Tetris piece per sitting, so hopefully it won’t take nearly as long as previous attempts.

I’m super pissed off right now. Time to get all emo on you.

This afternoon Nathaniel, Jules and I went to the Salvation Army just down the street from us because Jules was interested in looking for some casual jackets. While browsing, we saw a drum set and I jokingly picked up the stool and said “We should get this.” Looking at it more closely, I realized it had its own price sticker labelled $4.99. Score! So I took it up to the counter and bought it, then sat down on it near the entrance while I waited for Jules and Nathaniel to check out. As we were leaving the store a different cashier said “Hey, you can’t have that.” Apparently it belonged to the drum set and HAD to be purchased with it, it couldn’t be separated, despite the fact that it had a separate sticker on it and the drum set was labelled $799. I said that I had already purchased it and the guy said it was a mistake and I had to give it back. They were super busy and there were about 15 people waiting in line, so in front of all those people they took the stool out of my hands, pulled the sticker off and made me cut off everyone else in line to do a refund transaction on my credit card. The cashier who had rung me up ran off with the stool to make sure no one else could attempt to buy it without the drum set and some other guy took care of giving me three more receipts and making me sign two others. It was extremely embarrassing and disappointing, as we had been looking for a drum stool for Rock Band and it was perfect: cheap and in good condition. And because of some employee’s incompetence by labelling it separately AND the cashier allowing me to purchase it I had to look like a complete fool. Now playing the game makes me think of that disappointment and I get even more upset. :(

Update: Nat & Jules ordered a drum THRONE for us for Christmas. *smile* Better now.

Since we moved into our new apartment we have noticed we had a lot of stuff for which we didn’t really have a use. Our CD and DVD shelves were overflowing with media we hadn’t touched since we bought it and there were stacks of papers that were no longer relevant once Jules’ official paperwork went through. In the months since, I’ve slowly gone through our possessions and weeded out as much as I could and either donated, recycled, or sold it. These past two weeks I’ve sold a stack of things on eBay and managed to come out with a pretty large wad of cash. It’s a bit shocking to think we had that much stuff just sitting there unused, but it’s easy to fall into the mental trap of thinking that I need something or value it more than I really do. When I began asking myself questions like “When was the last time I watched this movie? Will I ever watch it again or is it just taking up space? Is it simply a relic from childhood when my tastes were different?” I realized many of the things I owned fell into those categories. So now our collections are much more manageable and we have a little bit of extra money to help us with bills. That, combined with a holiday bonus for both of us at work should give us enough to get most of the debt taken care of by the end of January. Woo!

Here’s a couple articles on the abrupt closing of one of Seattle’s beloved downtown music venues, the Crocodile Cafe.

Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe closes
Music dies at renowned Crocodile

I saw a few shows there over the past year, two of them being some of the most memorable shows I’ve ever seen. The intimacy you feel in that club is unmatched; I was only mere feet away from Midlake and The Clientele and was able to observe their performance on a level I have never experienced elsewhere. I am truly disappointed to see this place go.