This Post Will Bore Michelle.

The other day Amanda and I went on a date... to Best Buy!!!

Normally I try to avoid that place like rotten garsh because it's impossible to buy something without the Geek Squad trying to make you buy useless things like a plan to upgrade your PS3 to the latest firmware (which requires turning it on and pushing X). But this time it was at Amanda's insistence to check out the new Nintendo 3DS. For all you old-fashioned folks, that's the first portable 3D game system that doesn't require 3D glasses. When Amanda heard about 3D without geeky glasses, she just had to check it out.

While we were there we decided to partake of all the other demo displays they had as well as shun the missionaries for being there in the evening to get trunky. Here are the official 2011 Heit Impressions of the latest technology.


Nintendo 3DS: While not needing glasses to see 3D was pretty nifty, the fact that we had to keep the screen about a foot away from our faces for it to work wasn't as impressive. I also have about zero moments when I would find time for portable gaming considering I'm either at home, at work, or driving, so the device doesn't score well for usefulness.
B+


Sony 3D Games: Sony decided to go the 3D route with the home entertainment system instead of the portable world. Since some of our PS3 games already support 3D, this seems like it would be more useful for our purposes. Unfortunately that would require $1000+ for a 3DTV and $100 or so more for 3D glasses.

When we tried it out, I couldn't get it to work at all, but that was because my glasses were busted. Then I tried Amanda's and it worked. The 3D was more impressive than the 3DS considering the screen and resolution were a lot bigger. However, I found that whenever I looked at another portion of the screen I had to actively refocus to get the 3D effect back. I also had to stand at a certain distance. I'll wait for glasses free TVs. It was also a baseball game on display, so that didn't help impressions.
B-


Sony 3D TV: We also saw a soccer game (a real one, not a video game) on another TV. This was the least impressive of the 3D stuff, because the players looked like they came from Parappa the Rapper's world of paper thing people in a 3D world.
C

Xbox Kinect: Of the big three game companies, this tech was easily the least impressive. I've never been a big fan of the Wii because I have yet to play a game where the motion control either wasn't gimmicky, couldn't be done easier with buttons, or couldn't be played by mindlessly waggling the controller. Taking away the controller entirely just makes you look dumb, and in our experience it didn't even work well. I'd credit that more to the shovelware dance game on display than the actual tech, though. And to its credit, you can't get much cooler than this:

D

Google TV: This was the loser by a big shot considering we couldn't get any of the buttons to work and we're still not even sure what it does.
F

In the end we came away with no urge to buy any of these technologies. The wireless wizards must've heard the news and were enraged, because last week this happened:


That's the dreaded Yellow Light of Death. It basically means, as Amanda would put it, that our PS3 was a "toaster face." Or, as some other's would put it, dead.
I wasn't about to let death laugh at me in the face like that, so I took that bad boy apart for an autopsy. Besides, we had worked hard for our Bomberman costumes and weren't going to give those up that easily.

After performing a reflow, blasting that motherboard with heat hot enough to melt the sun, and then applying a new layer of Arctic Silver 5, we were back in business. Now it's running quieter than ever.

After that incident, it was time for more modern wizardry. While Amanda and I failed at finding something particularly cool at Best Buy, Wesley found the coolest of them all at the mall. A

Anniversary Dinner and 2 month olds

First, a public service announcement:

Don't let your kids watch "Charlie bit my finger - again!" too much.

Here's Katelyn trying out the playplace. I forget where it came from. Things just randomly appear around here that I've never seen:

And here's Wesley showing how it's done.


Here's Kairi with Wesley's favorite buddy Sackboy.


Wesley likes his sisters. He likes playing with them and helping his Mommy.


They're all a bunch of goofheads too.


There's a lot of work to do around this place, so Wesley does his best to help here. Here he is washing the dishes:


And here he is feeding his sister:


Yesterday was the company's 32nd Anniversary Celebration Dinner. Amanda and I made use of our slave--um, I mean our wonderful babysitter who we are very grateful for--to spend 4 whole hours together! That's more than in a normal week combined! First, since you can't be slobs all year long, we had to dress up.

Bow ties are cool.

There were stations all around the Learning Center for sampling food from various Madison restaurants. This one had sliders, macaroni and cheese, homemade pretzels and four types of mustard.


This one had either Korean or Thai food (they both had stations, but who knows which was which. They both had unpronounceable dishes. There was also a seafood place but we didn't get there in time. Not like we would've gone there anyway, but Amanda did have some catfish.

Oh, here's the menu:
Korean items from Jeongmee Park

• Jopt Che- sweet potato starch noodles stir fried with spinach, mushrooms, eggs, carrots and Korean soy sauce (vegetarian)
• Beef Bulgolgi lettuce wraps- marinated thin sliced grilled beef with Korean chili in lettuce leaves
• Thai Food from Kannika Assarattanakul
• Thai Chicken Croquettes- mildly spicy chicken ground with lemongrass, shallot, lime, cilantro, ginger, curry paste

Nostrano

• Farro Salad- smoked mushroom, pine nuts, caramelized onions (vegan)
• Seafood Brodetto- branzini, shellfish, tomato broth, white beans
• Pork Shoulder Agridolce- smoked pork shoulder, grilled ciabatta, Tuscan olive oil

Graze

• Macaroni and Cheese (vegetarian)
• Home made pretzels, mustards and local cheeses (vegetarian)
• Sliders with caramelized onions on brioche buns

Lao Laan Xang

• Squash Curry (vegetarian)
• Chicken Larp- ground seasoned chicken, lettuce, cilantro, cucumber wraps
• Kanap Pa Catfish roasted in banana leaves served with Jasmine Rice

Dessert served after the Innovations program

• Root Beer Floats using Sprecher Root Beer
• Chocolate Cherry Croissant Bread Pudding

There was also a silent auction where people brought in items and you could write down a bid. We saw a bead necklace that had a bid up to $100 and decided that next year Amanda could get rich quick with things like that going for so high. Then we noticed that all proceeds go to a local food bank and not to the contributer. Oh well.


Then after all that trash there was a little program about things going on around the country and other stuff that no one reading this would care about. Then we helped clean up because we're nice like that.

Laying Around

Another Post! This time there are some pictures...yeah.

Here is Wesley if you couldn't tell. He is being a goof face.

Here is me. Oh yes, I am finally doing a blog update, so it will be short since I'm always short on time. This was taken the day before I had two babies at once. I compared with a picture I found of when I had Wesley and yup, I was double wide, although I did not get that picture up here. Oh well.

I don't know when this was taken, but it was on my camera and is really cute!

We walked around CR's work place and here is Amy and her creepy friend.

Ride it cowboy!

The twins on their first stroller ride, inside that one work place.

Hug!!!
(Katelyn is in the pink, Kairi is in red)

Size comparison. I think this one is Katelyn but I can't see the face sorry.

Kairi with an almost smile face. Funny how they hide those smiles once the camera comes out.

I took a break from baby feeding and the like and went to a Relief Society night where I got to build a chair! Wesley loves it since it is his size and he uses it just like his slide to push his toys down on. Just so you know it's not finished in this picture. There is another slat on top.

Katelyn

and Kairi

Katelyn on the left and Kairi on the right.

Who said trying on shoes was only a girl thing?

Wesley is reliving old times of fitting into one of these.

Okay so funny story. We acquired an extra high chair and when I was moving it out of the way to reach some fabric that I sowed covers for the couch seat cushions for (sorry no picture), Wesley decided to eat in it. Here is the result.

For Valentines day it was my year to plan what we would do. I started out by gathering some secret materials, berries. Then I threw a hippo bath toy into Chris' work room that had a string attached to it. On the other side of the string, outside his door, was a can of BBQ Pringles. Then we rushed home to work on a secret surprise, this cake! It is a red velvet cake made from scratch, and I thought it was soo good I ate almost all of it! Later that night we went to a Mexican restaurant and then to a bowling place. That was plan A, we never got to bowl since some kid spent twenty minutes texting ignoring us, until the manager came out to tell us that all the lanes were full. So we left. Then we attempted a plan B. We looked for a red box movie, but didn't see any we would like. So we went to a plan C, where we rented "Letters to Juliet" and watched it on the compy in our bedroom. Chris was a good sport about it, but wondered why all girly movies have guys in them that are jerks.

Here Kairi is on the left and Katelyn on the right. It's their first time wearing head bands!

Here is Katelyn all ready to go to church today. However, the van died (what do you know) so we still have not gotten everyone in this house to church all in the same week. This week it was my time to stay home, so I took a picture and updated the blog for all of you!

Here is the van! It was running when this picture was taken. In case you can't read the fine print from far away it is a 2000 Toyota Sienna.

And the last picture is Amy.
The End.