Apparently, We Didn't Know What We Were Doing

This weekend we received a bunch of fun items in the mail. Starting on Friday with my shirt.woot t-shirt that I'd been waiting impatiently for. Followed by a box from Newegg with computer parts that Rob revealed I was getting as part of my birthday present....and then on Saturday more computer parts and a Roku Box (which was going to be a birthday present that I would have to wait until my birthday for, but it came in a box that said Roku all over it...so the cat was out of the bag).

So on Saturday we started by setting up the Roku Box--which was a piece of cake, mostly. It has a wireless internet receiver so that we don't have to run cords all over the living room (yay!). Unfortunately that meant we needed to know our WEP Key/Password thingy for the wireless router. Rob set that router up with his old computer and we couldn't find the password anywhere (even after trying to install the software for the router on both of our computers). So when Rob set out to upgrade my computer with the parts we received (1G graphics card, additional 2G RAM, and a new power supply to support them) we plugged his old computer into my moniter....and realized that the hard drive had crashed and we couldn't get into windows on his old box. Rob got my computer upgraded with only one little hitch (he had to open it back up because of a loose cable)....then he reconfigured the wireless router so that we could get a new WEP Key which we promptly got entered in to the Roku Box setup screen....and then we lost internet. So here we were with these two new toys that we couldn't even play with. We were without internet all Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Of course the story doesn't end there.

On Saturday evening we called Mediacom to see if it was an outage or if something had gone wrong when Rob was changing the wireless router. The message indicated to us that there was an outage in our area. So we occassional reset our cable modem to reboot the system to check if the internet was up and running. When we still didn't have internet access at lunch time on Sunday, Rob called again and found out that there were no more outages. So he had to go through a ten minute long automated program that asks if your modem is plugged in and if you've tried resetting it and all that fun stuff for people who have no idea what they are doing. After a good ten minutes, the automated program informed him that because he had called in on the digital phone (from Mediacom) that he would have to hang up and call in with another phone. So we called with the cell, and 15-20 minutes later, finally got to talk to someone, who told us that we had bumped our standby button on the front of our modem. Sure enough....we both felt like idiots. I wondered why that particular question wasn't part of the automated program for people who don't know what they are doing...cuz we sure felt like we didn't know what were doing after that.

On the plus side, everything is working now. My computer is awesome...and can now play games smoothly that were chuggy before. The Roku box is fantastic--if you're already paying for Netflix...I WHOLE HEARTEDLY recommend getting one. It's easy to use, the video and sound quality are as good as watching the show on cable, and it sure beats sitting at the computer to watch stuff.

Blank Park Zoo and Mini Golfing

Another beautiful day in Iowa convinced Rob and I to check out the Blank Park Zoo. The zoo is small but well kept, and we had a good time watching the sea lions swimming and the giraffe chewing on leaves. I also had ample opportunity to mess around with my new camera.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157618931877819/

And for the first time ever....I took videos with the camera and posted them on youtube.

Fish:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRffyjcDLLQ&feature=channel_page

Giraffe:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytMeLXo9EM&feature=channel_page

After the zoo, we went out for lunch at a local restaraunt and decided to check out the mini golf course that we saw on our way to the zoo. It was a nice course. Rob beat me yet again.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157618931949013/

Mom and Stephanie Visit

Mom and Steph visited last Thur, Fri, and Saturday. We went on some adventures including shopping, the art center, the park, downtown, etc... I had an awful cold for most of their visit so I stayed home the day that Rob, Mom, and Steph went to Living History Farms.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157618683121584/

Carcassonne in Gingerbread

To go along with the cupcake catan....is gingerbread carcassonne ;). Again, very cool...but I'd be tempted to eat the game:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zendonut/tags/gingerbread/

Why not polka?

A collection of Weird Al's Polka Medleys (20 years of music in about 15 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yugldxpRDMo&feature=response_watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCAt9WcCFbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY-oili63QQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hdxt_wNpHo&feature=related

Weekend in the Twin Cities

This weekeend Rob and I trekked up to Bloomington to spend the weekend at Kris and Marie's house. Marie planned a weekend get-together with a couple of our friends from college. The two ravishing beauties in this first picture are Claire (2 mo) and Shannon (28 y :). The girls went out shopping on Saturday (we had planned on going to a spring art and music festival--but it was unseasonably cold, so we went to Ikea instead). Before we headed out, Amy braided all of our hair in true girls' day fashion.

On Saturday evening, Rob and I played board games with Kris and Marie. We played Pandemic for the first time and failed to cure the world of viruses--but it was a fun game.

On Sunday we went to the Original Pancake House in Eden Prairie (which I highly recommend--it's next to the Eden Prarie Center Mall if you're in the area). And then spent a little time we visited with Grandma before we headed back home. It was great to see everyone!

This week I'm preparing for my Mom and Sister to come visit. It's more excitement than I've had in ages :).

"There's a popfly coming at me..."

The small white sphere against the twilight blue sky was centered in my vision and falling in what seemed like a direct trajectory towards my head. I threw up my arms and watched through squinted eyes as the ball glanced off the arm of a man in the row in front of us and bounced with great force off of the back of a stadium seat a few yards away. My heart was pounding. I have never been hit in the head with a baseball. I had been hit twice with an aluminum baseball bat, but both times swung by a third grader and never at my head. I had been hit several times in the head with a basketball--one time it broke my glasses. I had no desire to find out what it felt like to be beaned in the head by a baseball. Fortunately no one was hurt. Earlier in the same game, a young woman sitting in the section in front of us was hit directly in the chest. I can only imagine what that felt like.

Last Saturday, Rob and I went to our first I-cubs (the minor league farm team for the Chicago Cubs) game. Neither of us are baseball fans but aside from the near close encounter of the baseball kind, we had a good time. We got free tickets (from Rob's work for JDRF) to their game against the Memphis Redbirds. The first half of the game was pretty uneventful. By the 6th inning the I-cubs were down 3-0, but the Redbirds' pitcher was getting tired. He walked 2 players and allowed a 3rd base hit to load the bases. With only one out in the inning, we were hoping for someone to score...but we were suprised by a home run into right field--a Grand Slam! Even though the I-cubs did eventually lose...they played a good second half of the game and went into an extra inning. Rob and I both decided it would be more fun to come back when the Sioux Falls or Fargo teams were in town.

I put a few pictures of our evening up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahjanesetnes/sets/72157617877851027/

Pepsi Throwback: A Review

Some of you may know that I am a big fan of Pepsi...so when I found out they were releasing a real sugar version of Pepsi for release this spring, I was excited. All I could think about was the deep smooth flavor of the all cane sugar Pepsi I drank when I was in Jamaica--ice cold and out of a glass bottle. When I tried Pepsi Throwback what I got was a more mild cola flavor with stronger hints of acidity. It tastes a bit like a weaker version of Pepsi...so as a big Pepsi fan, I was disappointed. My new fear is that folks will think it's the real sugar that makes it taste like this...it is clearly a different recipe all together. So, if you're not a big fan of strong cola flavor, you may like Pepsi Throwback, otherwise you may want to pass.

Yes!

I'm dangerously close to being done with school. The portfolios are graded, and I just need to finish up my grade book and check for errors and post online!

In celebration, I have decided to post a comic about grammar :).

Cupcakes of Catan

Someone decided it would be a good idea to recreate Settlers of Catan out of Cupcakes....I think an edible board game would be very dangerous :)

More photos including close-ups of the cupcakes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quintanaroo/sets/72157594450089446/