Sheep Guarding Llama

We actually woke up early enough this morning to be able to make it out to LaGrange for church. It is rare that we don’t have some silly reason why we can’t go. On the way this morning, the roads got really bad. After church, we went up to the house next to my father’s to see it because they were having an open house today. Art and Danielle had made it up an hour or so before we had to see it. They decided that they weren’t really interested in it but Phil and Kate might be interested and they are hoping that they might get a chance to see it on Tuesday. We think that the house would be really perfect for them. It is a small three bedroom ranch hand built by my old neighbour Bill Seamen in 1951. Dad told me the story. Bill had built the house for his wife but she died before he was able to complete it. I had never realized that the house was so new. I had always thought that the house was much older. It was weird to be in the house that I had grown up next to but only ever been in a handful of times and only when I was very young. The house was completely redone in the last few years. New windows and siding and a completely new kitchen. We were really impressed. The really cool thing about this house is that it is directly across the street from the spot where Min and I hope to build our new house someday.

Phil and Kate came over for dinner. While Kate and Min cooked, Phil and I played a round of AoE2.

After Phil and Kate left, Min and I watched The Thin Red Line which I have been wanting to see for a long time but have never gotten to. It was good. Not great but interesting and different. It was neat to have a movie made about Guadalcanal in 1942 but we had been hoping that the movie would be much more historically informative and instead we learned very little about the campaign. We both thought that we probably would have enjoyed the film better if we hadn’t had such skewed expectations of it going into it. I will have to watch it again another time to get a better impression of it.

We all got up really late today. I don’t know when Josh and Joanna got up but it was way before we did. They got up, packed, stole the head of our speaker cow and took off. Apparently they went to the Omega Grill for some lunch because they ran into Eric and Amanda there and Josh told Eric all about the game that he had missed. Jeremy and Tony got up kind of early and started playing more AoE2. They didn’t manage to get a whole game in before Jeremy had to leave, though.

Andy got up after we did and then the four of us went over to the Omega Grill for our own lunch. It is the popular lunch spot around here. I had a terrible headache, probably from stairing at the computer screen for so long last night and then getting so little sleep. So when we got back to the house, I went back to bed while Min played some Sims. I didn’t really get any sleep but I felt a lot better.

After I got up, Min, Andy and I watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade because Andy hadn’t seen it yet. He liked it much better than Indiana Joned and the Temple of Doom.

Today is the big game. We managed to get eight people to confirm for the game this evening. We are worried that the house may not be able to handle the amount of power needed for the game so we called Phil and he is hooking us up with three additional LCD monitors. We have five here in the house so that is enough for everyone to have one. York and Avon had school cancelled today so Tony and Jeremy don’t have to be at school. Andy and I went up to Avon to pick up Tony and we went over to Tom Wahl’s for some lunch. We headed back to the house and Tony spent the afternoon trainging with Andy and I.

I spent most of the day working on NTI’s new instant messaging server. It took quite a bit of work but it is finally up and running. We are very excited to have our own corporate IM server. It is a nice addition to our services line-up. We are hoping to be able to sign up new IM users as early as this week. Eric and I are already beginning to use the new system.

After the work day was over, Jeremy came over to get started. Arti arrived around 7:00, Josh around 8:00 and Phil arrived around 10:00. We did away with out slowest machine because we have been concerned that it might be causing problems in the game. Our slowest machine was removed and Phil provided us with another one of almost double the speed. We had to do a lot of work to get places for everyone to play at. Min and Andy got to play in their own rooms and I got to play at my desk. Art and Jeremy shared the secondary desk and Tony played at the third basement desk. Josh and Phil split the dining room table. We had to run ethernet cable around the upstairs to get connections for Josh and Phil.

We got two games in but it took almost eight hours to play them. The first game was Min, me, Jeremy and Phil vs. Josh, Art, Andy and Tony. We got our butts handed to us in the first game. We took a twenty minute break or so between the game and then swapped Jeremy and Josh and played another game. We did pretty well in the second game. It was really exciting to be able to play with so many people. We tried playing with 200 population giving us 1600 total units to control. It was really exciting. But we decided that having a few less units would work better so we went back to our regular 150. That worked really well.

We played until almost 6:00 am. Boy were we tired. Phil had to be up at 7:00 to be able to get to work. Phil, Josh, Joanna, Jeremy and Tony all crashed here.

Man is it cold today. All of the schools in the area were closed today.

Andy and I went to Tom Wahls in Avon for some lunch. We braved the cold. The roads were fine but it was so cold that we couldn’t keep our breathe from freezing on the windshield. After lunch, we headed up to Rochester to go to Borders. Andy bought a ton of books to take back to Puerto Rico with him. He got confirmation that he is going back on Monday and will be in PR until the first week in March. He is happy to be able to go down during the coldest time of the year. This week’s incredibly cold weather is making it easier for him to leave.

Since York cancelled school today, Jeremy came over to play some AoE2 with Min, Andy and I. We managed to get two games in and some pizza for dinner. Jeremy had to get back home because he might have school tomorrow. He is hoping that he doesn’t because it will mean a five day weekend.

Tonight is Min’s last day at work this week because she worked a day early this week. So, because of that, the game is back on tomorrow. Min has decided that she is going to play so we are able to have the game even though she isn’t working. It is going to be Andy’s last game for quite some time. Jeremy is going to be able to make it and Andy’s brother Tony is coming over for his first game. So that is five players before we even get started. So we might have a good game.

The world is very cold today. That’s all.