http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuRfQlMu2VY

This may even edge out the performance where another group did only Oingo Boingo tunes (though I don’t think anything beats hearing 50+ people playing “Insanity”)

My initial goal with these restrospectives was to be done right around the time I would have been here for a year.  Oops.  Anyway, what happened in March?  Funny I should ask.  March saw my second disc golf injury (the first being the pleurisy, which I still heartily recommend nobody ever get).  Because of an especially hilly course in late February, both my big toes turned black from blood beneath the nail.  It didn’t hurt, per se, but it certainly didn’t look right.  It is currently November 13, and they are almost back to normal.  *sigh*

In one of the strangest gifts I’ve received, a total stranger offered up a free Mountain Goats ticket, so I hustled over to San Francisco to see a band I love and still haven’t pinpointed why.  The show was excellent - he puts so much heart and energy into a show, you can just see he loves doing it.  Highlights were “No Children” (a rarer live feature than I would have expected), and “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod”, a song (based on the reaction it garnered) he should play live much more often.

The snow finally melted off my back yard, though it wouldn’t melt off the mountain just south of my back yard for another 4 months.

Easily the most significant aspect of March was the wedding of Mitch and Marsha.  Being the first male Sonderfan to get married, it had some significance.  Ash and I headed out to North Carolina, met up with my father and stepmother, and one Scott Fourre, and we were able to give Mitch a pretty good bachelor party, limitations notwithstanding.  He was able to see many friends that weren’t invited to the wedding, play some disc golf, and get nice and drunk.  Aside from the naked ladies (which I was only told afterwards that we could have gotten), it was a good time.

The wedding itself was a thing of beauty - on an island, surrounded by quaint jungle, and in a house the size of Rhode Island, we were able to spend some time with the family (the first time we’d all been together since Tracy’s wedding, and the last time we’ll get together before our weddingish).  The ceremony was short and sweet, and the reception was just sweeeeet.  I got to do my second best man speech, and it accidentally triggered a cascade of speeches which will likely be a cornerstone of our weddingish. 

I’ve never been to a baby shower - for the most part they seem to be women-only things, though that’s changing a bit.  Either way, this was my first.  And maybe it was because WE were getting all the gifts, but it was a pretty darn good time.  You can head over to Ash’s blog for a few pix, but here are my impressions:

- When asked to cut a length of twine that is roughly the size of a pregnant woman’s belly, most people think she is the size of small personal watercraft.

- The Wade ladies and Erin can sure put together an event that is fun without ever getting too ‘girly’.  The events ranged from drippingly sweet (the book full of advice) to intensely competitive (the memory game, won handily by Kim), to silly (the candy bar game), to awesome (some of the killer presents we received).

- I know my friends well.  One of the games was to match a ‘personalized’ onesie to the person who sent it.  Ash and I got all the ones my friends and family got, and only mixed up a few of her family/friends.  While I hate to pick out favorites, because there were some GREAT ones, “Freud is my Homeboy” might be up there.  Thanks Jaclyn!  Hopefully we’ll grab photos of him in each onesie and grab a photo. 

- Three notable thank yous for picking up some of the bigger ABOSLUTE necessities.  Tracy and Jerry, Cyrus, and Jiffy.  Thanks guys! You sock my rocks!

But seriously, thanks to everyone who had a hand in this.  It’s nice to know the network of support we have is so strong.  Smacky’s in good hands (espcially when we drop him off somewhere to be babysat.)

I have on my brand-new Old Man Pants, and I’m about to head off to the Baby Shower.  WOO!!!!

Arrow Creek 2006 - I have this tendency when drinking certain reds to have absolutely no idea what they’re supposed to taste like.  From my memory, Pinots tasted more like a merlot or a cab, something that doesn’t bitch-slap the tongue.  So when I first drank this $6 bottle of wine (yes, you read that right, times are tough here in NV), I figured it was sharp because it was, after all, a cheap bottle of wine.  Then I reread some of my past entries of Pinots, and they are a bit beefier than other reds.  On a scale of beef, with 0 being a guy whose idea of working out is playing Madden on Xbox, and 100 being a guy who sleeps on a moving treadmill, this one is around 60.  Not Zinfandel strong, but certainly enough to rattle your cage a bit.  (I don’t compare this to other reds - Zins - to be snobby and pretend like I know everything, it’s actually so I remember for later that Zins can kick your tongue’s patoot.)

Anyway, now that I’ve completely discredited myself as a reviewer, onto the review.  This was surprisingly good.  I daresay, it was one of the best wines I’ve had for under $7.  Truthfully, when you look at the competition, that isn’t saying much.  But I did a little reviewing, and the Arrow Creek Pinot Noir has gotten great reviews across the board, one person even commenting how it’s better than some of the $20 or $30 bottles of Pinot Noir.  I couldn’t agree more.  Well, I probably could - it’s not like I wrote the person to tell them how accurate their statement was.  This is a great wine for the price.  Wine enthusiasts may swirl their wine glass at me snootily, but it’s true.  It’s a darn fine cheap wine.

I ended up drinking it quicker than I had planned (I was planning on having some, not liking it much, writing a sardonic review, and then using the rest in my pasta sauce) but it was that good.  It was certainly the best Pinot I’ve had (out of 3), but hey, I bet there’s at least two or three others out there to compare it to.  Hopefully you can find this one for under $9, and I’d say grab it!  Good alone or with food, but probably not with cereal.  Can’t imagine that would be right.  7.5/10

Finally passing the conundrum that was January, I stumbled into February, still very satisfied with my decision to alter my entire life for one girl.  We were still doing quite well, and she found herself spending more and more time at my small 1BR appartment nearly 15 whole minutes away (to people in Reno, anything further than 5 minutes away is ‘out of town’ - they don’t understand that in NJ, it’s typical to only get out of your driveway after traveling for 5 minutes.)

In February, the rather startling and certainly awesome news broke that Reno would be getting its first disc golf course, hopefully by May.  This would be a striking relief as I’d previously had to travel over 45 minutes across a mountain range to play any golf.  Who was I kidding, I only played my first time at the end of January, and only got in a couple of rounds because of the inaccessibility of the courses.  (The two closest courses were under 5′ of snow until May).  The snow actually prevented me from playing in a tournament in CA, and severely limited my ability to do much else besides stare at my carpets.  As it turned out, the first baskets weren’t placed until the last week of September, but it was still heartening news.

Speaking of disc golf, while playing in a tournament in western CA (no snow), I threw about 25 thumbers in one weekend (about 900% what I normally do).  About five days later, I started experiencing shallowness of breath that continued to get worse.  Finally, we went to the hospital, and while waiting more than three hours to get a room, my breathing had become quite labored.  I couldn’t breathe in more than halfway, and I couldn’t exhale more than 2/3 my air.  As any mathematician can tell, that’s not a lot of air.  It was diagnosed as pleurisy, or inflammation of the lining of the lung.  It lasted about three weeks even with medication (it is a condition that goes away on its own - the medication is just supposed to ease the pain, which it certainly didn’t).  That, in a nutshell, sucked.

With the snow still accumulated (only mild additional snow over the next month or so), that limited what I could actually do out here.  With a girlfriend who was busy, an address book filled with no people, and only so much time I could spend playing All Star Baseball 2005, I ventured out to more creative ventures.  I began doing open mic nights at the Maytan Musical Center, playing four or five silly songs usually to the accolades of almost a full dozen.  It wasn’t much, but any exposure is good exposure.  It was also at this time that I first saw Stage Fright, a new improv comedy troupe, that I immediately sought to join.  By the end of the month, I had arranged a first meeting, and by the second meeting, I was already a full-fledged member of the troupe.  We performed for crowds even smaller than the open mic night.

February featured a less-rare-than-we-thought meeting with Corey, where more shenanigans ensued.  Also, this began a rather impressive losing streak in Reno, one of only two cities where my gambling numbers are in the red.  In Reno, they’ve become significantly in the red, not particularly because I gamble too frequently, but rather that I never win.  Vegas?  AC?  Kansas City?  In the black.  (Yes, I gambled in Kansas City, I think I was up $20 total).  But Reno?  Yikes.  This also started Corey’s losing streak, which ended at only this time, as he’s profited quite handsomely from our little town.

Having assessed and reassessed my life, I determined that this trial run was good enough to continue.  On Valentine’s Day, I signed an additional six month lease to stay in Reno.  The only reason it wasn’t longer was because Ash and I weren’t sure if she’d be ready to move in to my place by November, thus needing a larger place.  It’s November as I write this!  Did she move in!  Stay tuned!

I love Jay, I really do, but seriously, he managed to perfectly demonstrate why Twittering is stupid.

“there’s a weird bug crawling on the ceiling above my head. ewww 1 hr ago”

Do I need to know this?  Does ANYONE need to know this?  The way I see it, a maximum of two people need to know this.  1) Jay does.  And he doesnt’ need to be acutely aware of it, either.  He should be vaguely aware that the creepy bug is not laying eggs above him while he’s eating his sandwich.  But probably, even he doesn’t need to know this.  2) In the case that this bug might be weird because he’s spewing lethal toxin from his mandibles, then maybe a guy from Terminix needs to know.  The question is: do the guys at Terminix use Twitter in the hopes to find business?

Nothing but love, Jay, but I may have to stop reading your blog unless you start twittering that you need someone to write you a play. 

So the game is mercifully done.  I shouldn’t be so harsh on it - it’s not the worst game in the series.  But I already outlined a few of my issues.  Ones I’d like to add:

- It’s comically easy.  I found out a way to level up extremely fast with the Yeti, and by the time I was at the end palace, I was killing bosses before any of my party had attacked twice.

- It gets pretty mundane by the end.  And worst ending in any FF game.  Seriously, 1 had a better ending and it was text-based.

- The end place itself is stupid.  While I like the idea of dividing up into three groups, it is too “thinky” with the whole ‘this group needs to step on this switch to enable this other group to pass by’.  Seriously, what bad guy designs a lair like that?  To get to the highest floor (where he apparently just hangs out, playing with his endless power), he’d have to bring a group of lackeys with him at all times.

Anyway, let me dwell on some of the good points.

- First off, it has the best character in any FF game, and that is the Yeti, who I named YETI!! because, really, he is.  I could watch him hurl my party members around all day long.  Major props go to Ash who noted, “He’s just like the Beserker [from FFV]”  HUH!?!?  She forgets the due date of our baby at our preggers class, yet she remembers a character from a different game altogether, one that she only watches to ridicule?  Muy sexy.

- There is plenty of non-essentials to do.  In fact, too many.  My quest of course was to do everything in the game.  From collecting all of Dr. Tom’s rages (I stopped when I realize I didn’t even fight one or two of the enemies in the WoB and therefore could never do it), to amassing Shoe!!’s lores (again, I missed one that was only available in one boss because I beat him before he could do a move) to fighting everything in the Colusseum.  I didn’t have the planning to do them all, but I did get all the Espers and fought all the enemies, are far as I know (at least I fought all the bosses)

- The Colusseum in general.  Cool idea.

- Getting General Leo to join my party (that ought to rile up the purists)

- The fact that they got away from the Light Crystals idea.  This was a vast departure storyline-wise. I don’t paricularly like the avenue they picked, but A for trying.

- Despite saying the game was pretty simple, I did die twice in the final place when a regular enemy used Blaster on my entire party, wiping them out in one fell swoop.  I only put it on the ‘cool’ list because, though it absolutely pissed me off, it’s good to keep me on my toes, I guess.

So this bugger only took me 38 hours, but I suspect that’s untrue.  I noticed a ‘glitch’ with the clock.  I would play for exactly one hour (real time), and it logged me for about 48 minutes.  I don’t know whether that’s because it doesn’t save loading time (and there’s plenty of it), or it cheats so kids can tell their parents that they weren’t playing as long as they were.  But there you have it.

Total, I’ve logged about 210 hours in this quest, which is half done.  I might be able to finish VII before Smacky’s born, we’ll see.  As much me time as I’m trying to take, I’m also trying to balance that with Ash time, and baby time.  Onto VII, another non-favorite of mine.

And we move on.  Having been in good ole’ Nevada for two months, I fully expected to acculturate myself.  Oh who am I kidding?  I don’t know the lyrics to any Clint Black songs and the only boots I own are hiking boots.  But January started off how 2007 ended: with snow.  More unseasonal snow came down, as I smiled quietly at the thought of me forgoing buying a shovel.  Thankfully, I lived in a complex that did all my shoveling for me.  Speaking of natural wonders, I also got my first experience of a pogonip, a rare Northwest phenomenon which coats everything within a small circumference with beautiful ice crystals.  The circumference itself is surrounded by a dense fog donut, completely isolating it.  I took some wonderful pictures, which I’m undeniably too lazy to repost.

Some of Ashley’s friends from San Jose picked this month to go snowboarding. I’m always up for a trip, although I wasn’t exactly up for paying for another $90 to rent the equipment.  So I showed us as the plucky comic relief and the guy who had the hot water boiling for everyone when they got back.  It was a good weekend to play Apples to Apples (a fun game for justification if ever there was one) and further cement my status as a GUITAR HERO!  That status is now no longer in cement, but sort of a flimsy saran wrap type thing, only without any adhesive properties.  I digress.

January also featured some of the best accidental television in history.  With the writer’s strike at full swing, most television consisted of reruns and reality TV.  NBC and its affiliates more or less forced their shows back on without the writers, leaving three of my favorites, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert, to fend for themselves.  What followed was some of the best inter-show rivalries that would have made Andy Kaufman envious.  I don’t have links.  That’s what Google’s for.

Probably more significant, I entered the realm of disdaining politics slightly less by showing up at the first Caucus.  Yup, a large contingent of white people and I headed to the middle school to stand in lines.  Well, I originally stood for Edwards, so I stood in a small four-or-five sided shape with the scant few others who weren’t voting for Clinton or Obama.  I ended up going to Obama when my line disbanded.  Yay for politics.  *sigh*

I reneged on my first New Years Resolution at the end of January: posting a blog every single day in 2008.  I haven’t counted, but I doubt I’ve even done 100 yet, and it’s almost November.  There would be more where that came from.

Finally, the month was capped off with my first major trip back east for work.  This bled into February, and it wasn’t exactly noteworthy, except I got to (sorta) surprise Susan for her 30th birthday.  Feliz Navibirthday, Suds.

So I’ve been looking for an MP3 (or WAV) file of McCain’s “And I couldn’t agree with them more…” blunder.  I think it would make a lovely ringtone, and I use a site that will make it a ringtone.  But I can only find it in video form, not in an audio clip.  Can anyone dig this up for me?