Dishwasher

It gets loaded back to front, why does he load it front to back?  It's drives me mad!

Dreaming Skyrim

The other day Brandon woke up and told me he had a hard time sleeping because all he could think about were the tasks/challenges he had to complete on Skyrim the next day.  Then once he finally fell asleep he dreamt of his Skyrim adventures.  Oh wait it gets better... Dr Dre was apparently there too!  Who not only dreams about video games but also places out of date rappers in there too?!

Why Does He Want This?

(http://www.entertainmentearth.com/prodinfo.asp?number=UC886001)

Really...WHY?!  Please look at this thing.  It's a World of Warcraft human-full size tabard.  I don't even know what that is (beyond an unnecessary piece of cloth you drape over yourself) but I know I DON'T want one in my house.  That's all that needs to be said about that.

Fridge Organization Update

After posting the frustrations with men always putting items back in the fridge on the top shelf, I received a reader contribution that in fact, keeping eggs in the fridge door is dangerous as it is the warmest place in the fridge. Thus bringing eggs below acceptable temperatures.

Apparently, the people who designed the fridges (probably a man) in the mid 60s-80s thought egg indents in the fridge door would be a good solution.  And I must admit it does keep them out of the way.  But who knew they could get so warm and then become bad for you?

So now I must reorganize my fridge.  I'm a bit concerned this may throw Brandon off, but who am I kidding- he just puts things on the top shelf anyway.  This won't throw him off.  Just as moving the cleaning supplies, hand towels, toilet paper or anything else with any kind of organization.

I'm waiting to hear back from the same reader if you can in fact eat eggs that have become frozen.  Update to follow.

"Don't get mad at me for putting things wherever I want" -Brandon

Talking to the Couch

Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually talking to the couch, when in fact I intend to talk to Brandon.

Me: I think the dog needs eardrops for her...
Brandon: (staring at the TV screen) Are you serious?!  What the hell? 
Me: Are you talking to me?
Brandon: No- game.

So I figure since he interrupted me in the middle of my sentence he probably wasn't listening anyway.  Rather he's so entranced by his super amazing game he's upset he now has to fight a dragon.

Me: Hey couch- I think the dog needs eardrops for her ear infection.

Who-balation!

I love Christmas!  It's great fun.

Brandon likes Christmas, and I think he sees it more as a cost.

But finally, last week he let me set up our Christmas tree.  Actually, more accurately HE set up the actual tree for me while I was at work in order for me to decorate when I got home.  This is even better, because it means I didn't have to fumble with tubes fitting into other tubes, branches falling down in my face or straightening out branches that have been stored in a box for a year.  This sounds great to me!

So while Brandon watched hockey and played Call of Duty: Modern WarFare 3, I strung lights, intricately placed ribbon (ever so gracefully falling down the tree) and found specific spots for each ornament we had purchased.

Speaking of ornaments- Brandon bought WAY too many!  OK, it was me.  But I'd rather blame it on him.  I spent WAY too much money on ornaments, beyond the ones we made.  But they're so cute and unique.  Almost all were purchased at Canadian Tire too.  Not somewhere I'd ever expect to find a whole assortment of ornaments.

We have what I'd refer to as a WhoVille inspired Christmas tree.   We compromised on white lights (because I wanted white and he wanted colour) and coloured ornaments (because I wanted a theme and he wanted colour).  So I decided that I could still make it a themed colour tree.  Being WhoVille inspired (which if you don't know who or what Whos or WhoVille are please refer to this Wikipedia post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horton_Hears_a_Who!) means ornaments are gem coloured, deep purples, lime green, deep red and turquoise.

Quick side note on the colour turquoise: would the readers agree and confirm that this word is pronounced "TER-Coys" and NOT "Ter-Qwise" as Brandon prefers to pronounce it.  Each and every time I must correct him, never knowing where he came up with this pronunciation anyway.

please note the Toronto Maple Leafs ornaments, and to the right are Brandon's homemade ornaments

The living room (and video games)w/ stockings and tree

The dining room- cinnamon pine cones, Rudolph among other Xmas decorations

 Back to the tree- it's fun, whimsical and definitely WhoVille inspired.  Of course I then went out and bought the live action "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" with Jim Carrey among other Christmas classics, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Coming to Town... Brandon chose "Jingle All the Way". Impressive Choice.

As a link back to a previous post (It's All Good in the Hood) I'm posting this fun Busta Rhymes/Jim Carrey compilation: http://youtu.be/s2Q2csuodko

Skyrim... Seriously?!

When I used to work at the movie theatre, we had popular times of the year Blockbuster, big-name movies would come out: beginning of summer and mid October to mid November.  Apparently, video games have this same type of practice.  Because this past month at least 3 big-name video games have come out.  Which of course means- Brandon has gotten 3 big-name video games in the last month!  Yippee!

First came Battlefield 3- interesting game, good graphics, but he beat it in like 6 hours!  How fun is that?!  I know the point of the games is to beat them, but really if you can beat it that fast, then aren't you missing out on the fun?  Apparently not.

Next up, Call of Duty: Modern WarFare 3.  Also slightly interesting story, but is so very similar to it's predecessors in visuals and tasks.  At least from the amount of knowledge I have of it.  Again, Brandon beat this games' campaign mode in a day.

Finally, Skyrim has joined our household.  And oh what fun that's been.  It's been hours upon hours of play.  It resembles Brandon's old gaming obsession from the summer- Rift, in style/theme/genre.  Basically, it's medieval fantasy "business" with dragons, witches, trolls, giants, elves and other fictional type species all mixed about a HUGE playing map of mountains, valleys, towns, caves and the like.  I admit it's well done and interesting in short spurts of time.  But the hours that have turned into days are ridiculous and monotonous.

The characters say that same things over and over, like "I am sworn to carry your burdens" and "watch out for the creatures of Skyrim, they're creatures but they can be dangerous".  And these are just the times I am sitting and listening, I can't imagine how repetitive it must be when he plays for the amount of hours he does.  To put it in perspective, his character in the game has a house to store all his crap!

I've just been informed that his character (whom he named) was named after "the Thrall from World of Warcraft who was the warchief of Durotar"... so basically we could have called him Nerd of Loserville and it'd be about the same name.

Of course along with the hours of play, came all the special edition paraphernalia in another huge ass box!

 What's that on top of the box, you may ask?  That would be the giant dragon figurine that came inside the giant ass box!  More pictures below...

The dragon's spot on the shelf

The dragon & friends from Gears of War & Halo

Man I love these special edition video games!

Movember

The purpose: Men grow dirty, 80's inspired pedophile moustaches in support of men's health and most specifically, prostate cancer.  From November 1-30 they grow these upper lip hairs and gain as much money for cancer research and raise awareness with moustaches.

The reality: Men grow dirty 80's inspired pedophile moustaches and say they support men's health.  From November 1-30 they grow these upper lip hairs and ask for no money for cancer research and look like 80's pornstars with moustaches.

Movember has a few rules (according to the Movember Canada website http://ca.movember.com/news/view/id/2212/category/local/):
1. "Mo Bros" must begin with a clean shaven face on November 1
2. They must grow a moustache for the entire month of November
3. They cannot connect their "mos" to their sideburns- as this would make it a beard
4. They cannot connect the handlebars to their chins- as this would make it a goatee
5. Each "Mo Bro" must conduct himself as a country gentleman

While the idea is a good one, and the cause is most definitely a good one- the men around us begin to grow what they can in an uncommon fashion and disgusting the women in their lives.  A reader of this blog came up with an excellent suggestion for the women who must endure the men in their lives sporting the 'stache: for the entire month of November women everywhere should refuse to shave their legs.  Our way of supporting men's health and prostate cancer!  Why can't we jump on board too?

Women worldwide- unite!  To show our support for men's health!  Resist shaving for the remainder of the month and pass around the word.  We too can help support and create awareness for cancer research.  Why didn't we think of this for our breast cancer month?

Leave it to men to come up with an idea like Movember.

Thankfully, this year Brandon is not participating in Movember, but he sure did last year.  And oh what a treat it was for me.

Baking: Staying Sane & Getting Fat

I enjoy baking.  It's fun, creative and very satisfying afterwards with yummy treats.  It also makes me still feel like a woman in a house of man.  So while Brandon spends time playing video games, watching hockey or just hanging around being a man- I bake.  I try new recipes each time.  Below are some of my delicious creations:

Cupcakes for Brandon's dad's birthday
John Deere & Dale Earnhardt inspired

Rice Krispies Surprise Treats
w/ peanut butter cups inside each piece

Cookies & Cream covered apples

Peanut Butter Toblerone Cheesecake

Brandon helps me by eating these delicious treats.  On non-creative days, I bake chocolate chips cookies.  Tomorrow I think I'll bake some peanut butter cookies, or banana bread.  Yum.

Christmas Ornaments

Being that we are poor students living on our own, we aren't able to afford a lot of fancy Christmas ornaments for our tree.  So I decided to make our own ornaments.  I found some inspiration on the Internet first and then put my own flare into them.  I set out for the dollar store, and ended up spending $120 on supplies!  Here's the pile after I unloaded my bags:

OK perhaps a bit much... the receipt was more than a foot long.  From the dollar store.

So far I have made the following:

• candy cane stick with bells (very high end and difficult!)
• snowman with earmuffs
• reindeer wearing a hat
• our dogs: Hudson & Sarah
• our initials
• Toronto Maple Leaf puck
• Xmas wrapping paper covered horse
• and Brandon's mom and sister helped out with a snowman, reindeer, poinsettia covered ornaments and gingerbread man

Brandon decided he'd help me out and create some of his own Christmas ornaments.  Though his are more "Nightmare Before Christmas" inspired.  So far he has made the following:

• Christmas spider
• Christmas ant
• Christmas fly
• Christmas bat
• and a pissed off punk snowman 

Do you see the difference?  Fun whimsical Christmas ornaments vs. creepy (yet all Christmas themed!) ornaments.  I give him points for creativity though!  And the recurring theme.  Plus I'm happy he participates.  :) His next ornament in the making: Batman Snowman- stay tuned!

Opening the New One

Please see Exhibit A: full ketchup bottle next to the nearly empty ketchup bottle...

Why open the NEW ketchup bottle, when a perfectly good already opened ketchup bottle still has ketchup waiting to be used?!  Let me show you just how much ketchup was still left and ready to be consumed:

I realize this seems silly, but seriously, look at how much ketchup was left!  Now to be fair, this is not enough ketchup for Brandon.  We should really take our shares in Heinz Ketchup we go through so much.  We use approximately one of the large plastic squeeze bottles per month- and it isn't me using it.  I really think he'd eat anything if it had ketchup on it.  "Give it to Mikey- he eats anything"

This seems to be a theme though with men, or at least my man.  To open a new one, before the old one has expired or been fully used.  This goes with food- specially fridge items (yogurt, sour cream, cheese, ketchup, BBQ sauce)- and daily items such as, toilet paper and paper towel.  If it's not finished yet, why open a new one?

End to the Trilogy

For those of you with men in your lives that enjoy video games, you know Modern Warfare 3 has come out.  It's the third and (say it isn't so) final installment to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series.  Yesterday was a day full of tracking this game down.

Brandon preordered it weeks ago and has been counting down the days until it's arrival.  We had to stay home from regular day activities so as not to miss the postal man.  Whilst waiting around of course Brandon made good use of his time, playing Battlefield.  And to his credit- also played a boardgame with me!  During the course of the day, and still no knock on the door, he had been tracking the package online and seen that the status went from "en route" to "attempted and failed delivery-waiting at postal facility for pickup".  We still had no note on our door, no knock on the door and no slip left anywhere in our facility.
I call Canada Post and ask them why we don't have a slip on our door or anywhere near our house, and why no attempts were made to deliver it.  The woman tells me that the status often changes online but the attempt may not have been made yet... blah, blah, blah.  She informs us to wait until 6pm when the last driver attempts delivery.

A couple hours go by and we have yet to see anything or received any slip of delivery attempt.
So I phoned through to Canada Post again.  This began our day's activities tracking down the long awaited game.  After speaking to a representative on the very unhelpful phone lines, we got no further ahead except for them to tell us it is in fact at the local Shopper's Drug Mart awaiting pickup.  We get ourselves into the car and head over, wait in line, speak to the lovely postal worker and... no package is there!  The woman tells us she will call us when it arrives for us to pick it up.

We get home and Brandon is extremely upset.  He wants his game- and he wants it now.
I call the customer service line back and tell them that this is not the first time we've had this issue at our home and that we are tired of not getting our packages on time and having to go pick them up.  As our friend pointed out, it kind of defeats the purpose of having it shipped!  We file a complaint against our terrible driver who can't seem to deliver packages to our home.  During this time the supervisor tells me they have checked it in at the postal office we were just at 15 minutes prior.  But we still haven't heard from that postal worker at the local branch.  So we wait a little while longer.  And longer.  No phone call a few hours later.  So again a trip to the postal office (in rush hour traffic), and it's there... at 6pm at night.

We have dinner, and Brandon loads the game onto his Xbox.  Apparently, loading the game makes it run faster and smoother while playing.  (I know way too much about Xbox and gaming!)  Game play commences beginning with the "Campaign" or story mode.  Not 6 hours later, he's beat the game!!!

How can you be so excited for a game you can beat in less than 6 hours?!  But I should know by now, it's so much more than just the campaign mode... it's the playing against others and with friends  Learning new maps.  Unlocking new features, weapons etc.

This will be the game he plays for a while.... well actually not too much longer now that Skyrim is also on it's way to our household in the next few days!

My only concern is that I'm running out of Grey's Anatomy DVDs to watch while he's busy playing games... what will I do with my time now?

Gears of Reach?

Brandon and I are out picking up some necessary items today: toilet paper, Kleenex etc... and he would like to go to Best Buy.  So we stop in and of course we head directly to the Xbox section of the store.  Here he seeks out the new tool he'd like to purchase: an Xbox cooling fan.

In theory I must admit this seems like a neat little nick-nack.  It directs the hot air that your Xbox creates away from the unit and into the room.  I wanted a little room heater anyway- maybe 2 birds, one stone?  But after further inspection Brandon sees this tool is actually intended for units which are kept in confined areas, such as in an entertainment stand.

You know the ones that electronic manufacturers always tell you NOT to place their equipment, but people do anyway?  Ya it's meant for those morons.
Since Brandon isn't one of those morons, and keeps his Xbox (alongside Doug's) in our otherwise adult living room, he decides he doesn't need this tool.

However, in his travels in the Xbox aisles of paradise, he finds this HUGE box.  It's a special edition-or legendary edition- Halo Reach game and other stuff...you know, the important things like: fake medals and badges you can proudly display in our home of fictional characters no one knows, and photos of this character receiving these medals, and fancy packaging (total not eco friendly).  But he's so excited.  It's something like half price of what it used to be.  So he buys it.

Of course it also comes with this large "statue", made of like a rubbery plastic.  It has all the characters from the game with their respective guns, and again gets to adorn the shelves of our home.  Brandon now has 2 of these great "statues".  One from his Gears of War 3 special edition pre-order package and one for his new Halo Reach purchase.  They sit on his bookshelves:

Gears of War 3 dude

Halo Reach guys

Together on the shelf

 Another fine point to note is that this new purchase today was something he already owned.  OK, not the whole kit.  But he already owned the game, why the need for all the extras in the large box?  We take the nearly 2' x 2' box up to the cashier and she asks, "Is this all for one game?".  Brandon explains there are a lot more collector items (ie nerdy items) inside besides the game, and also offered up the information that he already owns the game but just wants "all the cool stuff inside".  Her follow-up remark was, "So all your guests can see them?"  I think she seriously wondered why someone would do this.  I have to admit, prior to meeting Brandon I may also have wondered the same thing.  I still wonder, but it doesn't seem as foreign to me anymore- it's just our life.

The LARGE and in charge boxes these collector edition games come in- which take up considerable room in our storage closet.  So much that we have to move some of our out of season jackets to another closet.

Also just being informed yet another large special edition box set video game is on pre-order (see picture below)...yay.

Look at all those unnecessary items it comes with...besides the map- of course he needs an antique map for the game!