Mario Kart Wii & Visiting

On April 27th I got up early on a Sunday ( which I normally do not do ) and went down to Roger's Video and picked up a copy of Mario Kart Wii ( and a free 2nd wheel promotion ). I've really enjoyed this game over the last two weeks. The number of new tracks and the playing with the Wii wheel is a lot of fun too. I've got friend numbers and you can actually play on the multiplayer with your friends as long as they have Mario Kart and online ability.

I know that this sounds like a promo for Mario Kart and well...it is.

On Friday Zack, Lindsay and Mark came over to our place and we had a good visit. Snacks were good and Jacqui made these little 1 bite cupcakes complete with spray painted tops ( Mark thought they had some lead in it ). We ended the night with some 4 player Mario kart and I think we all enjoyed it. I know I did.

-James

Mornings

I am not a fan of mornings. I think anyone that knows me understands that I hate mornings. I'm not sure why I hate then so much but I do. I think it might be the sun coming though my window waking me up from a nice sleep. I do like to sleep, I really do.

I think if I have to get up and be somewhat functional in the morning is one thing but if I have to drive on my way to work and see those happy people jogging or walking their Dog's at 6 in the morning I think I'm going to swerve. Exercise is nice, everyone should do it, but start the day off slower and don't just jump into exercise...it makes the rest of us feel worse.

I hate mornings.

Working on the Car

Well James spent his Saturday night working with Curtis on the old 93 Tempo. We started around 7 PM and was driving away by 1:10 in the morning. We got a lot of work done on the car (well who am I kidding, Curtis did all the hard work...I was the monkey) and I'm really happy that we finished it all in one night.

We replaced the Valve Cover Gasket (it looks like it goes on the engine block and inside it holds the pistons of the car. By the spark plugs) and that was actually a fast fix...the whole thing was done in about 30 minutes.
The Spark Plugs were changed easily and we changed the Distributor Cap and Rotor ( I actually got to do that. It was easy and a good thing too.) New spark plug wires were put on and then it was time to handle the big project...

...The Water Pump was a big challenge to replace. It wasn't hard to find but it was hard to reach as it is in the middle of the car (other car crap was on top and below it). After a few hours where Curtis pulled the water pump, cleaned the surfaces that needed to be put together and then put the new one back in place and make sure it is tight, it was about 11:30 at night.

After a break (the sealant needed to set for a bit) we went out and put on the new Serpentine belt (we took the old one off when we did the water pump and it was worn so it needed to be replaced anyways). No problem as I have small hands and can wedge them in small places.

We filled new coolant into the car (as we had to drain it to work on the water pump) and tested it out. Man I haven't seen the car run so well in a long time. Just goes to show what some work on it will do.

I actually had a lot of fun working on the car with Curtis and getting to talk and getting to know him some more...I should if he is going to be my future brother-in-law.

Mario Party

We've had our wii for almost a year now ( 11 months I guess) and though that entire time I think my favorite 2 player game on there is Mario Party 8.
Jacqui and myself have come to play the 2 player battle games before I was going to work. It's nice because a good game takes less then 30 minutes and you never know how it's going to end. The multiple boards that we can play are a lot of fun and I think my favorite is becoming Koopa's Tycoon Town. This reminds me of Monopoly where you invest in Hotels to get Stars ( stars being what you need to win the game )

I must say that playing it on Zack and Lindsay's 40 inch tv is much better then one one half that size.

This game has also become a good way to play on the Wii with my sister. Spending time with family is a good thing right?

New Computer

Well I'm pleased to say that I have a new computer. Jacqui let me get a Dell Inspiron 1521. I've been wanting one for a few years now and I'm so happy that the day has come.

We purchased it at Wal-mart for $599.97 plus tax. I was looking at the dell website and building the same computer would cost over $1100 dollars. What a price change for the same computer.

Zack I'll need you to come over and set up a home network so I can share files and the printer. I keep having a problem with it.

Here's some specs on the computer for those who care.

Key Features

• SMART: Windows Vista® Home Premium Operating System
• LARGE: 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD TrueLife Display
• FAST: 1.8GHz AMD Athalon Dual Core TK-55
• POWERFUL: 1GB DDR2 533 MHz Memory
• HUGE: 120 GB SATA 5400 RPM Hard Drive provides sufficient memory storage
  for all your music, videos and files
• CREATE: CDs and DVDs with the Super-Multi Dual-layer Drive
• VISUAL: ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 with 256MB HyperMemory™ Video Card bring images to life

I'm very Happy now!

Over the Holiday Season

Well over the holiday season we had a lot of fun. Here's some pictures with captions.

Jocelyn at her 19th Birthday Party. Let the drinks begin!

Jacqui and I at Jocelyn's party.

Leanne with Jocelyn at her Party.

Jocelyn Singing after about 20 drinks!

We got to see Mark just before Christmas. This is him with his cool new Truck. Best Truck Ever!

We went to the lake after boxing day and came home on new years day. Here is a wonderful view of the snowy lake.

Jocelyn and her dad ( Jacqui's dad too! ) came ice fishing for the day. Here is afish Joc caught. I guess she used to kiss fish all the time as a kid.

What is new years without fireworks?

And more fireworks...ok it was 6 PM on the 31st when we shot them off but it was cold out and dark already. It was new years somewhere right?

Busy busy

Well we haven't updated in a while......I guess we've been busy. Whats new? We painted the living room, kitchen, and bar of our place. Potentially we'll do the bedrooms too but I think we're done for now. We went to Edmonton for a weekend about a month ago and had an awesome time visiting friends and shopping. For the long weekend (last weekend) we went to the lake-it was a blast but there is a lot more snow there! Oh, and we're re-upholstering our living room chairs.

Halloween

Snow at the Lake

Happy Birthday Jacqui

Ok It has been a long time since we posted anything here. That's alright. We haven't been home much. Too much time out of town. I'll have to write more on that later.

Anyways the Girl that I love turns 25 today. Last night her parents and sister came over and she received some wonderful gifts including a necklace with pearls on it ( from Jocelyn ) and some cake caddies ( from her parents )

Today she gets to open my gifts when I get back home and tonight we go over to my parents house. Going out for supper tomorrow night with Leah and John and her Birthday stuff will be all done till the 24th when we go out for supper with all the parents.

Boy do Birthday's go on for a while.

Happy Birthday Jacqui!

-James

It's been awhile

Well we haven't posted in over a month......stuff happened, we went on vacation to BC, we've been spending a lot of time at the lake. Instead of going into a long explanation, I'm just going to post some pictures.
1-the 2 of us in Salmon Arm 2-Jane & Andy's wedding in Prince George 3- James, Jacqui, & Christine before the HP book release 4- James reading Deathly Hallows

James' Bday

Well last night was fun (although the restaurant was so noisy you could hardly hear the person sitting next to you!). Supper was good, the cake got eaten-I think James had a nice birthday. Here are a few pictures:

Happy Birthday James!

Today is James' birthday!! To celebrate, we are going to Chianti's with my parents and sister, his parents, sister, and his sister's boyfriend, and his grandparents. After supper we are going to his parents house to eat cake and maybe go in the hot tub. He has a choo choo train cake!! I'll post pictures of it later.

Happy Birthday dear.

Poor puppy

After over 13 years my 'little' large Bassett hound Ellymae passed away on Saturday the 19th. She was getting very sick and she couldn't even walk outside by herself without getting carried back up the stairs. She was an old dog but we loved her very much. Barkley is missing his friend even more and now only has the puppy Blade around. At least Barkley won't be all alone.

Here is an old picture with Barkley on the left and Ellymae on the Right.

GDML Cake

We had our 3 year anniversary at Gamma-Dynacare Saskatoon on May 8th and I wanted to bring cake for it...instead I brought it to the annual general meeting on the 9th so all the staff from the labs could share in the cake. Jacqui did an awesome job and everyone loved it.

They took pictures at work with me holding it with all the bosses around but I haven't been sent the photo's yet.

Don't worry If I wanted a bigger raise I would have asked my boss what kind of cake they wanted.

The Big Rollover

Well it finally happened. I was taking my camera to work for a week because I knew it was close. My 93 Ford Tempo just did the big rollover to 200,000 Kilometers.

The pic here is just before. The ones of the rollover are fuzzy and you really have to look...I like all the 999999's in this one.


I'm now about 200 Km. over it and it is still running...It didn't blow up!

Easter Sunday

Here is the cake I made for Easter. My family ate like 2 pieces then I took it to James' family who ate the rest.














Doesn't Chloe make a cute bunny?

Family Game Night

Easter Monday brought the first family game night in a long time...years really.

Wii Sports turned out to be a lot of fun. Bob, Lorie, Grandma, Papa, Dad, Mom, Sue, Christine, Jacqui and Myself all had lots of fun playing bowling, golf, boxing, tennis and baseball.
Here is Bob playing Bowling. I think he got a strike.


And we got Grandma bowling. Easy enough for her to play too. Strike!

Well Family game night was fun and Bob says he have to bring it over something and play on his big 60 inch tv.

Busy Days

It has been a busy week. Something has been going on every day. Lets see how it looks when it is all written out.

Monday April 2nd
Jacqui was sick at home in bed and I took care of her. We got our Wii set up and discovered that the living room needed to be moved around. So that is what I did. A picture to follow on how the room changed.














Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday went by in a blur of work and cleaning the house and playing the Wii. We rented some games and played those for a bit. Lots of fun but I wouldn't buy SSX Blur or Super Monkey Ball after playing them.

Good Friday had Zack and Lindsay over for a visit where we got to catch up and play on the Wii. ( have you noticed a theme this week?)

Saturday we took a Easter basket to Saint Peter and Pauls Chruch to get the food blessed for Easter Breakfast. It wasn't as enjoyable as last year as it was only 10 minutes long and there was no good singing like before. I'll have to wait another year before I can try to sing that.

Saturday Night saw a phone call from Mark. We were quite surprised. Zack, Lindsay, Mark and Myself went out Bowling (Jacqui Watched) and we had a good time just doing a little catching up. Mark has himself a girlfriend of a week (let's hope it works out)

Easter Sunday was a morning of blessed Breakfast with Jacqui's dad and sister and then we played the Wii for a while. I think we got about 5 hours in on that system though the day. Easter Super was nice and relaxing and by 8 PM We were very tired.

So that was this Past week between Passion Sunday and Easter Sunday. Hey I actually remembered something form church. Amazing!

We have a Wii

We stood in line at Toys R Us at 8 Am on Saturday Morning. The flyer on Friday said that they would have 20 Nintendo Wii's in and we really wanted one...so we were standing there. In front of us was a strange teenager, not really sure what is up with him but he was strange. Behind us was a youngish mom with a 5 year old boy who wanted a Wii. he was bored and the mom said that she should have brought his Nintendo DS but he said he lost it. She asked if he looked near his Gamecube. Jacqui couldn't believe that a 5 year old needed a Wii since he had a DS and a Gamecube. Spoiled Kid!

Well when the store opened at 9:30, we got into the store but we had to re-line ourselves up again to get into the electronic area of the store. I think they should have a ticket system so they don't have that kind of mad rush. A worker said that we were number 12 so the people behind us were happy, until he miscounted. We got the Last Wii system..Jacqui is happy that he bratty 5 year old didn't get one.

It is kinda cool what they do there. They put it in a bag then they heat seal it so you can't put anything else in there. I missed that as I had to work at 10 and I left Jacqui to finish up at Toys R Us.














Well I got off work at 6 and we ordered Chinese Food and came home...Time to set up the Wii and give it a shot.

All I can say is that it is better then I would have expected. Very cool features including the Internet with Opera web browser, Mii's to create and other channels like the Weather and News for your City. We're still playing with the games we have ( Wii Sports and Wii Play) so we'll improve with time. (I still suck at tennis but my bowling game is getting better)

Here is Jacqui playing Golf ( Mind the living room as we pushed stuff around for an area to play)

A New Blog...For Two

Hi, it's James.
Well I was doing some thinking the other day and thought that it has been getting hard to find things to post about on my blog. The problem is Jacqui and I do a lot of things together as a couple but as soon as one of us posts it on our own blog then the other person doesn't really need to post it again. Why waste the time right? So I was thinking that we needed a blog for the two of us.

A blog for the 2 of us hmm? Well it seems like a good idea. I know that I'm not going to write on my own blog anymore but together we'll post what is going on in our lives here. I can't speak for Jacqui as her blog is so cool she might not want to leave it. (Jacqui is cool, it says so on her blog so it MUST be true!)

So expect posts from the two of us on here. Now instead of checking two blogs and seeing that we're not updating it, you only have to check one...what a deal!

-James