Castle Crashers

My new favorite game on the X-Box is Castle Crashers.

Image from Castle Crashers website.

It's very cutesy-cartoonish with exaggeratedly short knights and exaggeratedly large weapons (in comparison to the size of their bodies). It's pretty fast-paced action with some cartoon gore. Although not what you would think of in terms of "hi-def," the graphics are detailed and flow really smoothly on the big screen. The music is a mix of techno and action-movie-theme-song. It really gets your adrenaline pumping as your fighting off the bad guys with swords, battle axes, maces, bow & arrows, and magic. You can play up to four people at the same time.

Warning for parents: In addition to the cartoon gore, there are some pretty silly but gross elements. The authors of this game had some sort of obsession with animal poop. The forest animals in the background (owls, deer, bears) get scared of the battles and leave poop behind them as they run away.

You can download the game for about $12 on the X-Box Live Arcade.

Here's a trailer for the game:

How times have changed...

I feel old.

My wife and I were just sitting here remembering what it was like for us as kids and thinking how different it is for our kids.

This all came up because of a story ES read at school. Apparently Abraham Lincoln realized he overcharged someone 6 cents, so he chased the person down the street to repay them their 6 cents. ES just couldn't believe that he would do that for 6 measly cents. My wife explained to him the concept of inflation and the fact that 6 cents was worth a lot more back then.

That got me to thinking...

When I was in first and second grade, we used to go to the Thrifty drug store down the hill from our house to get ice cream. It was 15 cents for a single scoop, or 30 cents for a double. Nowadays, we go to Maggie Moo's and pay like $3 bucks per ice cream. I don't remember the exact price, but it seems to me we normally pay about $12 for the four of us there. Granted, at Maggie Moo's they take candy and other stuff and mix it in to the ice cream by hand, but still. If we just went down the road to the Hershey ice cream place, I'm certain it costs at least somewhere in the $1.50 to $2 price range for an ice cream cone.

When I was in third and fourth grade, we used to ride our bikes and play ALL over our neighborhood. I could have been anywhere in a 4 or 5 block radius from my house, and there were no cell phones or radios for our parents to find us.

ES likes to go over to his friend K's house to play. We have a very nice network of paved walking paths all over Ashburn. I just clicked my way around Google Earth and saw that it would be an easy 0.57 mile walk for ES to just walk on the paths over to K's house instead of my wife driving him to drop him off and then driving over to pick him up again.

I've always been grateful to my parents for their trust in me and the independence it fostered.

I went on my first unaccompanied plane trip when I was 9 years old. Granted, my mom said goodbye to me as I got on the plane in California, and my Grandpa said hello to me as I walked off the plane in Colorado, but still...

That was the same age that I became a latch-key kid. Yep, I walked unescorted 0.9 miles from my elementary school to my house (the horror!), and then let myself in the house and went to play with my friends in the neighborhood.

Since I value the independence my parents fostered in me, I've always thought that I would try to do the same for my kids.

...and yet I find I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of ES going half a mile to his friends' house.

Is it just a sign of the times?

Are there just too many weirdos out there to make it worth the risk?

Or am I just not as trusting as my parents were?

DC Area Submarine Ball and Happy Hour

Heads up for bubbleheads in the DC area:

N87 hosts a monthly social gathering for submariners in the N87 spaces at the Pentagon. This month's event is this coming Friday, 2/27/09, from 1500-1700.

If you're in the area, I encourage you to attend. I always end up running into some old shipmate or classmate that I haven't seen in ages. It's a great place to relax with a cold beverage, swap some sea stories and catch up with old friends.

If you need directions, drop me an email.

BT BT

Submarine Ball Update

As promised, here is the flier for the DC area 2009 Submarine Birthday Ball.

(Click on image to enlarge)

I have the flier in MS Word format if you would like for me to email it to you.

I have received a couple of email questions about the ball. Here are the answers for anyone else who has the same questions:

1. Where do you buy tickets?

Answer: It's on the flier.

2. What type of dress is appropriate for ladies to wear when the guys wear dinner dress blues?

Answer: See my wife's post on that topic.

Friendly reminder / public service announcement: NOW would be a good time to try on your dinner dress blues and see if they still fit or if you have all the pieces and parts. Uniform shops aren't exactly conveniently located around here.

Need a date? I don't know if Craigslist works as well here as it did in Hawaii, but you could give it a try. :-) (See last year's post on that topic.)

Blue & Gold Dinner

Saturday night we had our cub scout pack's Blue & Gold Dinner in honor of the birthday of scouting. Our pack here is HUGE in comparison to our pack in Hawaii last year, and they do things a little different here.

For instance, we didn't have a father-son cake contest. I was kind of bummed by that. I suppose we could have baked a cake together anyway, huh? (shoulda coulda woulda)

Also, last year in Hawaii, we had a cool bridge-crossing ceremony toward the end of the school year to promote the scouts to their next den and award them their Tiger / Wolf / Bear hat and scarf. Here, they had a promotion ceremony of sorts at the Blue & Gold dinner. They basically called up each den, and handed each scout a little envelope with their new patch.

ES stepped forward thinking it was his turn to get his patch.

Unfortunately, they had an administrative mix up with a scout that transferred out and ES who transferred in, and they didn't have one to present to ES. He was very confused and a little perturbed why all the other scouts got their patches, but not him (understandably so). His den leader quickly scrounged up another one and handed it to him after the fact.

ES checking out the Wolf patch after his den leader found an extra.
(It actually goes on the left side of the other two,
but you get the idea.)

The theme for our Blue & Gold dinner was America ABCs. At our last den meeting, we made placemats. Each scout had to choose a state to use as the theme of their placemat.

So take a guess what state ES chose. Go ahead... Those of you who know ES will NEVER guess.

Virginia where we live now?

Nnnnnope!

Hawaii where we just lived for 15 months before moving here?

Nnnnnope!

Oregon, California, or Massachusetts where his grandparents live?

Nnnnnope!

New Hampshire where we like to go on vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee?

Nnnnnope!

Florida where we like to go on vacation to DisneyWorld?

Nnnnnope!

ANY of the SIXTEEN states we drove through on our recent trip across country???

Nnnnnope!

He decided on...

NEW YORK

Why???

I haven't the foggiest idea.

First he traced the outline of the state from a United State of America puzzle the den leader had on the table. Next he drew the city skyline silhouette. Then he drew the Statue of Liberty.

He did a really good job with the Statue of Liberty. He drew it totally from memory. Even before he colored her in green, if we had been playing pictionary, I totally would have been able to tell it was the Statue of Liberty. Then he drew a car with something on the roof, which I thought was a police car at first, but then he colored it in yellow and I figured out it was a taxi cab (h/t to the King).

Then we started talking about how there's more to the STATE of New York than just "the city." After some discussion about the rest of the state, he added Wegmans and then Niagara Falls, because hey, they're of about the same relative importance aren't they?

Aside: For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have a Wegmans near you, Wegmans is an AWESOME grocery store with a food court. It used to be a regular thing for us to go there for lunch on Saturdays. They originated in New York and have been spreading across the country from there. If you have one near you and you haven't been there, you should stop by for lunch in the food court and just check the place out.

Anyway, we adults had a good laugh - both at my son's placemat and the others' as well.

Random Act of Kindness

I was the recipient of a random act of kindness yesterday on the bus to work.

Our bus is sort of like an airliner - not a lot of leg room in most rows, but there are two rows in the middle of the bus that have extra leg room. On the airplane they're the emergency exit rows, and some people like me call them "poor man's first class." They're actually intended as handicap seats on the bus, but I used the same PMFC phrase to describe these extra leg room seats on the bus.

So yesterday morning, I got on the bus to ride to work, and most of the seats were already taken. I sat down in a row with an open seat and crammed my backpack between my feet and the seat in front of me. The guy in the PMFC one row behind and across the aisle from me saw me cramming into the seat, tapped me on the shoulder, and told me I should sit in his seat because I needed the leg room.

Wow, thanks dude!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Family Movie Night

We frequently try to pick up some dinner to go and a rental movie for a family movie night on the weekends. Most of the time it ends up being pizza, but last night we did something different.

After I got off the bus, I stopped at Pei Wei to pick up some dinner.

In case you aren't familiar with Pei Wei, it's run by the people who own P.F. Chang's, but it's an order at the counter and sit down type of place instead of a full blown restaurant. According to their website, they're "a faster, more casual take of our parent company P.F. Chang's... and feature an entire menu priced under $10."

Random Aside: Why is it that every P.F. Changs in CONUS is always packed and has a long line of people waiting to get in, but in Honolulu they're always half empty? It always blew us away to go to P.F. Chang's in Honolulu and NOT have to wait in line and to see half the tables empty.

Anyway, the food at Pei Wei is delicious and I haven't gotten any MSG headaches there. I was pleasantly surprised looking at their nutrition information, too. I remember from WeightWatchers that Chinese food is absolutely EVIL and to be avoided at all costs. But the Mongolian Chicken at Pei Wei is only 6 points on the WW scale, and the brown rice is only 3 points. That's pretty darn good, especially considering how good the food tastes. I have found that things that are low in WW points generally taste like corrugated cardboard, but that is NOT the case at Pei Wei.

Plus they give out these fun chop things for the kids. They're a simple little plastic doohicky that holds the chopsticks so the kids can use them like a big set of tweezers. Our kids love them.

Anyway, I brought the food home and we had family movie night while we ate our chinese food.


Last night's family movie night selection was Cool Runnings. I dare say it was even somewhat educational for the boys. In order to set the stage for them before we watched the movie, I asked them where Jamaica was. We talked about Jamaica being an island in the tropics and that meant warm weather and palm trees like Hawaii.

I asked them if there was any snow in Jamaica, and they said no. Then I told them this was a movie about Jamaica entering a bobsled team in the winter Olympics, and ES let out a guffaw.

During the movie we talked a little about Jamaica once being a British colony. After the movie, my wife and I talked with the boys about the morals of the story, namely that (1) you can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it, and (2) winning isn't everything. It's a good movie for talking about sportsmanship, too.

Taking Chance

Thanks to my friend Ed for sharing this. I'm looking forward to this movie starting on HBO on 21 Feb.

Here's the trailer:



Here's the schedule on the HBO website.

Just for a couple of laughs

First, while searching for the definition of a nautical term, I happened upon this quiz. It's a bit dated (dixie cups and dungarees), but I had fun answering the questions. I got them all right.

Second, thanks to my friend Vince for a good laugh from this Top 278 Star Wars Lines Improved By Replacing A Word With "Pants."