I have to confess I am now officially, once again, on the band wagon looking for an at home gaming system.
Over the years I have had a Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, Sony Playstation and most recently an xbox (just so I could give Microsoft a more money than I do every year as is). The fact is, for better or for worse, I love the things. I could not imagine college without a big group of friends swapping in and out of hockey or football games whilst prefunking (otherwise known as drinking beer in preparation to drink some more beer). Admittingly, there are quite a few hours of my life I will never get back. This is true to the extent that I debated tagging each of the gaming system sites with XFN tags.
I now have a two year old and I need a gaming system that has games that she can play ... which really amounts to a gaming system I can play in front of her.
The Nintendo Wii is the only system that seems to fit my needs (wants) and yet they cannot be found. Nintendo is simply not producing them in large enough quantities to meet the demand and of course they are all over on ebay selling for at least $100 over retail. Obviously the employees of big retailers are simply buying out the stock the day they come in and reselling them, and good for them for taking the opportunity. I don't understand why Nintendo has not increased the price while they work on increasing their supply to retain some of their profits (maybe someone can explain this to me) ... but whatever ...
Regardless, anyone know where I can get a Wii? (it's for my daughter)
For the last two years Kara, Olivia and I have made the treck to Walla Walla Washington to check out some of Bob's (father in law) favorite wines, made right here in Washington State. We did this trip over the weekend. Kara and I sort of went a little crazy this year and purchased nearly two cases of wine from the various vineyards, but at least we are stocked for the upcoming holidays.
Bob, Kara and Rust (three on the left) sampling wine 
Rusty and Olivia in a vineyard
We tasted many different wines, mainly from the 2003 and 2004 vinetages. I have to say I really enjoyed the Syrahs in particular.
Walla Walla had a nasty freeze that destroyed many of the grapes in 2004, however most of the wine makers purchased grapes from the Columbia Valley (also Washington State) that year and made some very nice wines despite the chill.
For me, the most memorable wineries were (not necessarily in any order)
Cayuse Vineyards, Sapolil Cellars, Northstar, Reininger, Three Rivers Winery, Pepper Bridge
Loved It!
Last night Heather Alvis and I went to the annual Haggen wine tasting. The night turned out to be quite an event. We ran into quite a few people including Heather Pavlosky (Mindfly's book keeper) and Andrew Robinson (one of the biggest ASP.NET gurus in Bellingham).
Heather Alvis and Rusty Swayne
Haggen obviously did it right if they can get web developers and accountants in the same room having a good time together. I am definately looking forward to next year.
Downtown Bellingham was the place to be for trick or treaters today. The Downtown Renaissance Network organized it's 12th annual trick or treat and people were out in droves.
Kara, Rusty and Olivia trick or treating
I got my costume inspiration from the Wendy's ads, Olivia wore a very becoming poodle skirt and Kara decided to go shopping for a crate full of new clothes.
The gang at Mindfly really have had a lot of fun over the last couple of days decorating in preparation for the event and then actually participating. Heather Alvis (Mindfly) added a few photos from our showing in her Happy Halloween post.
While on our Starbucks run today, Kara and I were trying to thing of something fun, and Olivia friendly, to do for the day. We decided to head up to Vancouver (B.C.) to the Vancouver Aquarium. If you have not been, I would definately recommend it.
Personally I found the beluga whales, jelly fish and the Amazon exibits to be the highlights but there were many others.
I also over heard a very funny conversation between a group of people (some other tourists) our lunch explaining global warming. Apparently the main sources of global warming are emissions from our cars and other industry, expanding energy usage "especially by all of those people that never turn their computer monitors off", volcanism and people like Rush Limbaugh for promoting them.
Ouch, monitors and my hot rod ... I hope I can sleep tonight.