Favorite computer games

So I am going to tell you about my current favorite computer games. There are so many! :) There are two main places I go these days to play those little online games when I am bored. First is a wonderful website, Free World Group Games, that is a collection of all sorts of flash games.

There are a lot at this site that I really like but by far the best is Bloons (and Bloons 2 and 3). It is a tower defense game where colored balloons of varying strength, speed, and quantity flow along a course and you try to pop them all with your monkey or dart towers before they make it off the screen.

Another fun tower defense type of game is Ant Buster, in which ants come to your picnic and steal pieces of cake. You place towers to stop them getting the cake back to their hole. You lose when all your cake is gone.

Yet another really fun game at that site is Big Bucks, which is like Monopoly against the computer but faster and more automated and all everything happens simultaneously.

Some other good ones are Garden Inventor, Arachnophilia, QBeez, Beseiged, Orb Attack, Crazy Tracker, Glowstones, Pathfinder, Sprinster, Frantic, Power Pool, Gravity Master, Tiny Trials, Youda Farmer......... I could go on for a good while longer. If you can't find these games, you type in the name on the search box on the right-hand side of the screen that says "Search site" and it should come up.

Another good place for quick online games is an app on Facebook called MindJolt Games. It has tons of easy little games. My favorites are Brain Bones, which is a dice strategy game, and Bubble Spinner, which is really fun and addictive. In Bubble Spinner, you shoot a bubble at a wheel that spins a little when you hit it and when you get 3+ bubbles of the same color, they pop. You can't let the bubbles hit the side of the screen or you lose. It's a good one.

Things I want to do in Utah this time

It's no secret. I'm getting purr-etty excited to come to Utah next week(!). I've been trying to think of a list of things that I want to do while I am there. This is what I have come up with so far:

• Eat at Sizzler
• Go snowboarding
• Make a snowball
• Take lots of pictures
• Go the Distribution Center
• Hang out with Family
• Help prep 3rd Apartment for the newbyweds
• Go to Macey's
• Play Nintendo/PS/N64, etc.
• Attend Andrew's wedding and reception (Ooohhh boy!)
• Go to Down East Outfitters
• Eat at Village Inn
• Call to check on the cats
• See everyone's home renovations, etc.
• Eat delicious food
• Say goodbye to Missionaries
• Trim Pepper's claw's
• Go on shopping expedition with sisters
• Cook delicious food for family (oo-la-la!)
• Get ring inspected at Needham's
• Don't bother Jeran while he's studying for his test or working on his grant
• Have fun in both P-Towns
  
• Eat at Cafe Rio or Costa Vida
• Visit with friends
• Go into work just to say hi
• Test new shower in 2nd Apt.
• Sleep
  

If you have any other ideas and suggestions please feel free to let me know. Of course, I will be doing much much more than just these things so be excited, either to experience these with me or else to hear about it afterward!

Just today, that's all

I feel like I haven't posted here in forever but really it has only been a week! Anyways, just to assuage your impatience and my sense of guilt, I will tell you about my day. Not that anything interesting has happened but ... oh, well.

I got up early (8:00-ish) and did not go back to sleep. I have to say that because sometimes I get up at 7:30 or 8:00 and then after 10 or 15 minutes I go back to bed for an hour or two. Anyways, not today. I got up, took a shower and washed my hair. I got dressed - I chose a stripy blue and green and white polo and jeans. I always wear a camisole under that kind of thing and I wore the new white one I got for Christmas.

I had to point that part out because it makes me chuckle when I see that camisole. It arrived with the Christmas presents from my family. When I saw it I grabbed it and was like, "Oh my gosh! How did they know! I've needed a new one of these and I was going to buy one when we go to Utah! This is amazing! They are psychic or something!" A few minutes of amazement later, I remembered that I might have included the fact that I want one in an email I sent them. So now I laugh when I see it because I had such a short memory and thought that my family was not just nice, but psychic! Also, I have discovered that Christmas presents are less fun to open when the givers of the gift aren't around and they all kind of blur together as far as who gave what. No one is there to say, "That's from me," or "I'm glad you like the necklace I got for you." Oh well.

Back to my day. After getting dressed I started laundry and did two loads. We don't have a dryer so I hang dry everything on wooden drying racks and hangers. I actually really like not having a dryer usually. That finished up all the normal laundry so I was feeling pretty good. Then I had some green beans for brunch and did the dishes.

I have wanted to make some bread or at least some pizza crust for a while but I keep wimping out. So I didn't do that, but I did make some of our favorite chocolate chip cookies. They turned out a little different than usual. I don't know if it was because I only had light margerine and the shortening seemed a little dry (strange that it could seem dry, I know) but the cookies didn't settle down as low as they usually do. They stayed almost in the same shape as the scoop, just a bit bigger. They taste just fine so I don't know what's up with that.

At about 6-ish I made some potatoes that need to cook for a long while and we have some teriyaki chicken marinating. Yum. Such an easy delicious meal. Too bad I ate all the green beans already.

The things I did today were structured around the type of work I had to do today. I needed to run a series of long-running scripts and time how long each took so I could get ready for work on Friday. So amidst all this other stuff I was back and forth to the computer.

Some other stuff I did today (I don't know where exactly these fit in the timeline):
Watched some Hogan's Heroes
Watched One Fine Day (most of it)
Played Age of Kings
Played with the cats
Did the crossword puzzle and sudoku in the newspaper (oh yeah, and read it too)
Blogged

Delightful weather and other stuff

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful;
but the fire is so delightful.
Since we've no place to go,
let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Today in Durham we received about 3 inches of snow between late last night and about noon today. After not yet seeing any snow at all this winter, this is a very welcome sight. I love when it snows here because it is such a big deal. In fact, the new governor declared a State of Emergency because some areas that normally get no snow all year received almost 6 inches in one night.

Jeran is at home today (doing some data analysis work stuff) because despite our best efforts, we could not find a bus to take him to Chapel Hill. We drove down to the nearest bus stop about a mile away and I dropped him off there. About 30-40 minutes later, he calls and says he is still waiting there and no bus has come. I went back and picked him up and we went to the mall bus stop, with the hope that that one would actually make it since a lot of it's route is on the interstate and not residential roads. After waiting there for about 30-40 minutes (in the warm car this time - I'm so nice), he gave up and decided to just work from home. At that rate he probably wouldn't have made it in time for his only class of the day anyways. It has been fun having him home even though we are mostly just sitting in separate rooms doing our separate work.

Also noteworthy today was the inauguration of President Obama. I know, I know, these stories should really be in the opposite order with the inauguration being the headliner. It's just that my day was more defined by the snow than the politics. Oh well.

I watched the swearing in and the inaugural speech and I have to say it was pretty good. I enjoyed Obama's speech but I could have done without seeing the touching shots of the crowd, or whatever those were supposed to be. Maybe they show people crying or nodding at every inauguration. I can't remember. Anyways, good luck Obama. I hope you can do all those things you aimed us toward.

Hacer Tamales

Yesterday in Young Womens we had an awesome activity! One of the other YW leaders, Sister Silva, is from Venezuela and taught us how to make tamales, or as they call them in Venezuela, hallacas. Since we only had an hour for the activity, she had alrady prepped most of the ingredients and we assembled them and learned about them. We prepped big banana leaves and then made a cornmeal sort of outer layer and filled it with a meat mixture, vegetables, raisins, etc. Then she had some for us to try since they take an hour to cook. It was great! I had never had tamales before and they were really good and very filling.

Sister Silva said that getting all the ingredients ready for this is the first time she has ever made them on her own without tons of family all working together. They only make them in December and when they make them, they make at least 200 at a time.

Anyways, this ties back to our trip to Georgia last month. Kara and Sam took us to an International Farmer's Market where you could buy food and ingredients from all over the world that you can't find in regular grocery stores. I think there may be a little store down the street a a ways from our house but I have never been in it. To make real tamales, you have to go to someplace like that or else specifically Hispanic stores. I don't remember seeing frozen banana leaves in the Kroger recently...

In summation, I think I need to be a more adventurous cook and try some very new and different things. Thanks to Kara and Sam for exposing us to new foods and cultures! I'll keep y'all posted if Ihave any new developments in this area.

My friends are amazing!

I was just thinking about what a talented lot of friends I have. I think they are all very amazing. What a variety of things they know and do! Among my friends are at least the following talents (sorry, family, you're sitting this one out - yes, I know you have talents too):

I have friends who:

• are very smart and excellent critical thinkers.
• have such lovely voices and sing so well.
• are amazing at science - both understanding and doing.
• are very good and interesting writers.
  
• are great mothers, husbands and wives; I love to see them interact with their families.
• are extremely talented artists in many mediums.
• are some very good cooks.
• are very good photographers and take wonderful pictures.
• are amazing on instruments like the piano, organ, trumpet, flute, drums, etc.
• are great planners and organizers.
  
• can do fabulous things with hair, makeup and fashion.
• have great conversational skills and are very good listeners.
• are very creative and crafty.
• are doctors and nurses (or are working on becoming one).
• are very athletically gifted at soccer, football, basketball, bicycling, etc.

Wow. This is why I love lists - its such an eye opener to see in one glance what amazing people my friends are. I'm so grateful I am able to know all these people! I love you guys!

I almost bashed a burglar in the head today

So today at about 4:00 in the afternoon, I was sitting quietly at my computer desk, just working. Things were going well; I had started to think about what to make for dinner even though I didn't expect Jeran home for about 2 more hours. Diego the cat was sitting on my lap, looking for attention.

All of a sudden, Diego ran from the room and I heard a noise coming from the kitchen at the back of the house. A door was creaking open. Then the sound of small thuds and footsteps. The door was swinging a little again like someone was trying to decide if it was safe to open all the way and go in - it's got creaky hinges. I listened carefully, thinking the wind must have somehow blown open a half-shut door. But no! More distinct footstep sounds!

I stood up carefully and stood by the door of the office, thinking about what our neighbor told us a while ago about break-ins in the neighborhood where people were robbed by thieves coming in through the back door during the day. Diego stood by the corner of the hall closer to the kitchen, frozen. Panic has about gripped me. I decide to try to scare the intruder away by making them aware that someone was here so I opened the closet door near the office and grabbed a heavy mag-light to whack them on the head. I made sure not to close the door too quietly - but even still! More sounds.

I crept quietly through the front room toward the kitchen, wondering what I was going to do when I get to the point were I have to look around the corner. I was all pumped up on scary terrified adrenaline so I peeked around the edge and saw a person in a dark coat and beanie near the open door. After a second, I recognized that it is Jeran! What on earth?! I almost fainted (literally) with relief and draining adrenaline.

"WHAT are you DOING?! I almost bashed you in the head with this flashlight!" Jeran guffawed and informed me that he was going to sneak quietly in through the back door and into the office to scare me. He did not understand that the whole last part of the plan was completely unnecessary since he had already scared me out of my wits just by walking in the back door unannounced.

Afterward, I had jello legs and arms and was seriously pretty faint and shaky and feeling near tears. The whole time I'm explaining what I heard and did, Jeran was like, "Darn, I really wanted to scare you." HELLO?!!!





Also of note, if any of you are wondering "What is the difference between burglary, robbery, and theft?" this linked article is a good answer.