SLOW RIDES

I never thought that I would willingly listen to Foghat's "Slow Ride" over and over again, yet I did just that this evening. Why? My son and I were playing Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The drama departement at my wife's school owns the game (she's the director of the program), so she borrowed it and brought it home so my son could see what they game's all about (it's Christmas list season, you know). Of course, I couldn't resist playing either. It's a lot of fun and I was able to make it through every song on the Easy level, with varying degrees of success. My son hasn't made it through one yet but he's getting better. I think it's easier to do if you know the songs; he hasn't listened to any rock beyond what I've subjected him to and had some problems getting the beats of the song. I suspect that he will put it on his Christmas list, though, and I won't mind that a bit.

RESTLESS

I've been very restless the last week or so. Part of it is that I'm figuring a new course for myself and I'm waiting on some information. Part of it is that I'm not working much at all and that disconnects me from myself. Plus, when I am working it's not necessarily teaching my own classes. I don't know. Just feeling restless and unsettled in general and today in specific. So what did I do with myself?

I watched most of the U.S. Open playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate. That's weird, because I very rarely watch golf and never for that long. I guess the intrigue with Tiger's knee and all made me interested. It was a really good match too - lots of high drama and great shots.

I also played golf on the Wii. Twice. I played all 9 holes both time and was horrible the first time, with a +13. The second time was much much better, as I was at a -3 through 6 holes. Then I got cocky on the 7th and ended up at +2 overall, which is still my personal best.

Jill and I also bowled on the Wii tonight and I beat her with a 174...somewhere in there. Not bad. Our friend got one for a Father's Day gift yesterday and he and his wife were talking about their Wii Fit scores. Jill and I had never done that, so we did. Jill's fit age was 50; mine was 38. The baseball did me in too, as I only hit one home run. I'll try it again some time.

In between all my game playing and sports watching, I managed to read 212 pages of the book I started this morning - Superpowers by David J. Schwartz. Obviously, it has kept me turning the pages and I'll be surprised if I don't finish it tomorrow (just over 160 pages to go).

I did watch some TV besides sports, diving into the DVR to try and catch up. I watched the Agatha Christie-centric episode of Doctor Who from Friday (fun stuff), about 10 minutes of the debut episode of Swingtown (which I promptly deleted along with the second episode), and then the second episode from the current season of The Venture Bros. (Dr. Henry Killinger is sheer brilliance!).

And there's my Monday.

SMASHING

Last Thursday Grant finally had enough money to buy Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. He's been playing it a lot, obviously, but Jill and I have gotten in the act too. Man, it is a ton of fun. You can fight on a variety of worlds from Nintendo games and as a wide variety of characters. You get to punch and use lightsabers and flip and all sorts of cool things as you try and knock out the other players. Last night I dominated as Mario, cutting way down on getting knocked off and upping my kill power. I love this game.

Yesterday I got a score of 8919 on computer solitaire, which is easily the highest score I've ever reached. I should probably retire, especially since I could be doing more productive things than playing it.

I spent a couple days last week reading through Justice Society of America: The Next Age, which collects the first 4 issues of the relaunched and ongoing series. I read these as they came out last year and liked them enough to get them in a collected edition. Geoff Johns is dealing with the legacy of the JSA, bringing in new characters and tieing into the past. It's the kind of DC comic that I go for and would love to write. Maybe someday.

I watched a cool Doctor Who two-parter ("Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood") over the weekend, breaking my self-imposed rule of watching show off the DVR in chronological order. The Doctor is being hunted by the family and flees to 1913 to hide, becoming fully human in the process. The aliens track him and Martha (masquerading as a servant) isn't sure what to do. It's a look at what it means to be human and what the Doctor sacrifices by being who he is. Really great work by the cast and writer Paul Cornell. This now brings me back to where I came in on the series, as "Blink" airs this coming Saturday. I'll probably watch the end of the third season again, especially now having seen just about the entire series (I missed maybe an ep or two somewhere along the line). Season 4 starts airing in April too, I think.

Speaking of series starting in April, I need to watch Battlestar Galactica: Razor before the final season starts on April 4. Frak yeah. Oh, you can find the cast's appearance on David Letterman doing a Top Ten list on You Tube...in character!

I also watched the first part of HBO's John Adams mini-series yesterday and found it thoroughly engrossing - both for the story and the performance of Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney and John and Abigail. Part two takes John to Philadelphia for the first Contintenal Congress and part three is also on the DVR.

Meanwhile, we're heading to Columbus for a few days tomorrow to visit Jill's dad and his wife. It will be nice to get away for a few days!

Wii HAD A MERRY CHRISTMAS

The other week I mentioned that Jill had gotten up at 4:30 on a Sunday in her quest to get a Wii for Christmas, a quest which was a success. That was the present that anchored Christmas for our son and he was suitably excited. We've all gotten into it, playing a lot of Wii Sports (which came with the console). We've bowled and boxed and played golf (and Grant has played baseball too). It's been lots of fun.

As for me, I received tons of gifts - DVDs, CDs, a book, a shirt, and a passel full of gift cards and cash. I'm going to be able to augment my entertainment spending for a few months, which is awesome. Thanks to everyone who gave me a gift!

Oh, and we got news from my cousin Ryan that he got engaged to his girlfriend Katie on Christmas Eve as well. Looks like we'll be heading to Baltimore some time in 2009 - congratulations, you two!

Hope everyone else had a great holiday as well!