Drew and Verdana

Verdana

Rock Band has been integrated with our lives for four years today, and I still love it!  The Rock Band franchise have released the best video games ever created.  I know I know, that’s just my opinion – but it’s my blog, so there you go.  Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Beatles Rock Band, Lego Rock Band, Rock Band 3…  You name one of their games and I love it.

Our characters in Rock Band are Verdana and Drew.  Drew is Andrew’s alter ego, and Verdana is one of the names we selected as a potential name for a child if we ever had a daughter.  (Yes, it’s a Windows font.  We’re geeks.  I know.)

Verdana

Drew and Verdana

Our band’s name is Lucky Briefcase.  How did we come up with that?  Well, I’ll tell you how. Lucky had just joined our family not too long before this game was introduced.  We were prompted to come up with a band name and both started to think hard about what would sound best.  I looked down and noticed Lucky climbing into Andrew’s orange and grey Timbuk2 messenger bag (aka man purse aka laptop bag aka briefcase) and had my AH-HA moment.  Lucky Briefcase it was.

One of my favorite things about the game is customizing the characters with crazy clothes, hair, makeup, tattoos and accessories.  I’ve included a few of our looks captured over the years.

I got an Xbox Live account just to play online with random people in Rock Band. Andrew was never interested in online game play, but I loved it. Since I was “a girl” and also a vocalist who played very well on Expert, I was very popular with the online community.

Ranked 110th on the World Leaderboard as a Vocalist

Ranked 3rd in the world singing Dani California

I held a few records in my heyday as well, such as being ranked 110th in the world for Vocals overall and 3rd in the world for singing Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I don’t think any other game in my lifetime will come close to competing for the coveted spot of being my favorite game of all time. I absolutely love Rock Band!

You can see more of my posts about Rock Band to take a trip down memory lane.  Like the time I dressed up like Verdana for Halloween in 2010, or when I first confessed my love of the game in 2009, or how excited I was to learn about the introduction of the keyboard coming out in Rock Band 3.

I went to a group meetup today where I learned some new nail techniques called Water Marbling, Konad Stamping and Newspaper Transfer.

I instantly fell in love with the water marbling technique and used it to “paint” my nails black and red.  In summary, you drop nail polish in a dixie cup filled with water.  Then you swirl it around with a stick (think: cappuccino art) and place your nail through the design.  Clean off the excess and BAM!  AWESOME NAILS!

Water Marbling Nail Art

Add a rhinestone or two and you too can quickly reach your minimum 37 pieces of flare…

Ford 1930 Prices

I was sifting through some old newspapers last night and came across this nifty little ad for a Ford dealership in Stevens Point, Wisconsin:

1930 PRICES
Pheaton $440
Roadster $435
Sport Roadster (With rumble, seat) $470
Standard Coupe $500
Sport Coupe $530
Tudor Sedan $500
Club Fordor $600
Standard Fordor $625
Cabriolet $645
Town Sedan $670
Deluxe Panel Delivery $350
Roadster Pick-up (Open cab) $430
With closed cab $460
1 1/2 ton Truck chassis with closed cab $610
1 1/2 ton truck, closed cab and stake body $575

(All 1 1/2 ton trucks equipped with 32×6 tires in rear and four speed transmission).

All Prices F. O. B. Detroit

STEVENS POINT
MOTOR CO.

Always Open

309 Strongs Avenue
Phone 82

A little inflation calculator satisfied my curiosity.  The top of the line model listed here, the Ford Town Sedan, had a price tag of a whopping $670 in 1930.  In today’s market, that would cost approximately $9,100.  Now I don’t know about you, but I think it would be really nice to own the top of the line vehicle for just $9,100 in 2011.  The cars I am looking at don’t come with price tags less than FIVE TIMES that amount.

What a difference 81 years can make!  Another cute thing to note about this ad: “Phone 82!”

As an addition to my original post describing the Concerts I had been to, here are all the shows I’ve seen since that time.  I’ve slowed down a bit on my concert-going experiences, but every now and then I still get out there to see one.

• 5/23/2009    No Doubt / Paramore / The Sounds
• 10/18/2009    Stone Temple Pilots
• 8/10/2010    Weird Al Yankovic
• 9/15/2010    Paramore/Tegan & Sara/New Found Glory/Kadawatha
• 1/16/2011    Air Supply
• 3/10/2011    Huey Lewis and the News
• 7/23/2011    Soundgarden / Marrs Volta
• 8/3/2011    Katy Perry
• 10/14/2011    Evanescence / Pretty Wreckless / Rival Sons
• 10/16/2011    Billy Idol  (scheduled for tomorrow!)

Here is a list of the different artists and bands I have seen perform live over the years – many of them multiple times.

1. .38 Special
2. 3 Doors Down
3. Abandoned Pools
4. Aerosmith (2x)
5. Air Supply (2x)
6. Akon
7. Alanis Morrisette
8. Alter Bridge
9. Annie Lennox
10. Beach Boys (3x)
11. Billy Gibbons (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
12. Billy Idol
13. Billy Joel
14. Black Eyed Peas
15. Blue Man Group (Complex Tour & Megastar 2.0)
16. Cheap Trick
17. Cher
18. Chevelle
19. Chicago (2x)
20. Choke 66
21. Chris Isaak
22. Cirque du Soleil Delirium
23. Counting Crows
24. Cyndi Lauper (2x)
25. Daughtry
26. Def Leppard
27. Depeche Mode
28. Dogs Eye View
29. Earth Wind & Fire
30. Elton John (2x)
31. Eric Clapton
32. Evanescence
33. Faith No More
34. Fergie
35. Genesis
36. George Michael (3x)
37. Godsmack
38. Go-Go’s
39. Gwen Stefani (4x)
40. Heart
41. Huey Lewis & The News (3x)
42. Janet Jackson (2x)
43. Joe Myers
44. John Mellencamp
45. Joss Stone
46. Kadawatha
47. Katy Perry
48. Kenny G
49. Kevin Eubanks & The Tonight Show Band (x2)
50. Kid Rock (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
51. KISS
52. Korn
53. Lacuna Coil
54. Lady Sovereign
55. Lenny Kravitz
56. Live
57. Ludacris (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
58. Luscious Jackson
59. Madonna (2x)
60. Marrs Volta
61. Mary J. Blige (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
62. Mase (on The Tonight Show, 2004)
63. Melissa Etheridge
64. Metallica
65. Michael Bolton (on The Tonight Show, 2006)
66. Motley Crew
67. New Found Glory
68. Nickelback (2x)
69. Nitza
70. No Doubt
71. Paramore (2x)
72. Pearl Jam
73. Pharrell (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
74. Phil Collins
75. Pink
76. Pretty Wreckless
77. Puddle of Mudd
78. R. E. M.
79. Red Hot Chili Peppers
80. Rival Sons
81. Rob Thomas
82. Rob Zombie (2x)
83. Robert Plant
84. Robyn
85. Rod Stewart
86. Sarah McLachlan
87. Shinedown (2x)
88. Smashing Pumpkins
89. Soundgarden
90. Stabbing Westward
91. Stone Temple Pilots (2x)
92. Tegan & Sara
93. The Fray (2006 Billboard Music Awards)
94. The Sounds
95. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
96. Toni Braxton
97. Tori Amos
98. Trapt
99. Video Games Live
100. Wallflowers
101. Weird Al Yankovic (2x)
102. White Stripes
103. Young Jeezy (2006 Billboard Music Awards)

Roger the Pirate Bear

This is Roger. He might look like any other Pirate Bear to you, but he’s special to me.

Roger is officially my 500th Ty Beanie Baby.

Roger is a German Vedes exclusive.  I think he’s absolutely adorable with his little bandana and tiny black eye patch.  I bought him to display with my Halloween Ty collection because of his cute little Pirate costume.

You can see all of Roger’s 499+ siblings in my Ty Collection set on Flickr.

Learning how to shoot a .22 pistol

I don’t like guns.  Let’s just get that out of the way first, shall we?  I think Andrew was very surprised when I told him I wanted to go to Shooter’s World.

Those who know me best will recognize that I like to learn about things.  I have a curious nature, and I like to understand how everything works.  If you ask my DaD, he’ll tell you that I used to follow him around the house trying to help me fix stuff all the time when I was a toddler.  The drawer faces in the kitchen, the furnace and stove pilots, the washing machine cylinders… Those were all fair game for me to tinker with.

Loading a .22 pistol

I wanted to learn how to shoot a gun because it’s not something I am familiar with at all.  I’ve never held a real gun before.  I was (and still am) afraid of them.  In an effort to face the fear and to get some point of reference (pun intended), I went to Shooter’s World for some instruction on Friday for Ladies’ Night.

The staff members were very friendly and walked me through the entire process, from how to safely load the firearm, handle it, aim it, shoot it and safely unload it.  The range time and the gun rental were free for the first hour.  All I had to buy was a box of ammunition and a target.

It only took an hour, and now I have a much greater appreciation for the contestants on Top Shot!  I can officially cross this experience off my list of things to try before I die.

What’s on your list of things to try?  What is preventing you from doing it?

icanhascheezburger.com

One of my favorite websites is icanhascheezburger.com.  The LOLCATS are absolutely hilarious.  This photo and caption is one of my favorites in recent memory.  If you haven’t seen the site, I recommend heading over there to see what you are missing.  Some of them are true classics!

I dug these out of the photo archives from 2009.  For some reason, the kitties just love batting at virtual snow in Animal Crossing.  They don’t care about anything else on television, so to watch them go crazy over the snow was quite hysterical.  I’m surprised I was even able to capture these pictures because I kept laughing so hard.  Silly kitties!  This is just one more reason why I love Animal Crossing.

Tumbles and Olly bat at the snow

Olly watches the snow on screen

I dug out this old picture of me on the back of the Disney Wonder cruise ship at Castaway Cay, Disney’s private island in the Bahamas.  This was taken on March 15, 2008.  Just look at that smile!  Notice the neck full of Disney trading pins and the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean in the background.  I loved our first Disney cruise!  I hope we can go on another one someday.

Jessica at Castaway Cay

I pulled these out of a pile of cell phone pictures from 2009.  It’s one of those “Now what should I do with these?” moments.  The pictures aren’t very good, but they are tied to a fun memory that I want to preserve.

We drove up to Las Vegas so I could see George Michael in concert at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.  I enjoyed the show SO much that I bought tickets for the Phoenix show, drove back the next morning and saw him again the next night!  I felt like a roadie, and that’s probably as close to a roadie as I’ll ever become.  It was neat seeing the same concert in two different cities, one day apart.  I gained a bit more respect for traveling entertainers because George did not fail to entertain in either city.

George Michael Tour, 2009

George Michael Tour, 2009

George Michael Tour, 2009