Entries tagged with “Kent”.


I’ve been playing an online game for a while now called WeeWar. It is so awesome. It’s kind of like the board game Risk. Aside from the fun strategy, and scheming, and destroying, one of the things that makes the game great is that it is turn-based. I’m currently embroiled in furious battle with my brother and my two cousins. What happens is I take my turn, and then the game sends an email to the next person in line that it is their turn. That means that every player can play when it is convenient to them, and the game doesn’t have to steal your soul and ruin your life! If you want to play more, you just start more games. If you don’t have much time for games, you can just be involved in one game with a bunch of players so that it takes a while to get back around to your turn again. This has been great for us since the four of us have very different lives: one who is frequently on the road (me), one with kids, one a newly-wed, and one who lives in the gutter and sleeps in filth.

The game with my brother and cousins has turned into our major form of communication too since there is a little box on the screen where you can have an ongoing chat with the other players. It’s great.

Ok, now here’s the real deal though: after I have recruited 10 players to the game, I achieve Pro status which means that in any game I start, all the players have access to a bunch of additional units (planes, boats) and cooler game maps. So if you want to play WeeWar, you can help me achieve Pro status by using this link to sign up. That way you will be counted as a player I have recruited! Then once I get Pro staus I would be glad to invite you to a game with all the additional units. Just remind me ;)

I should point out though, that you will need some patience. It turns out that WeeWar is so popular that they have had trouble keeping up with the huge demand, so there are times that the site goes down, and they are still fine-tuning the recent upgrades. I think they will get it all worked out soon.

You’d think that since I have six games going right now it would be my turn in one of them… but no.  I guess I just have to get invited to more games.

San Francisco Voyage

My brother Kent got married last week in Cambria California, which is in wine country in between Los Angeles and San Francisco. I flew into San Francisco, and then caught a ride with my cousin and family down to the wedding. It ended up being a fantastic weekend all in all, but the first day of my trip alone was pretty incredible.

First of all, as I was headed to the Airport I got a call from the Orbitz automated Traveler Update telling me that my flight into O’Hare was delayed due to bad weather, but when I got to the airport and checked in, I had already been re-routed through Dallas/Fort Worth. Amazing! It’s never that easy when you fly! I especially appreciated the re-routing since throughout the afternoon I kept getting calls from the Orbitz automated Traveler Update telling me how much more my original flight was now delayed.

The flight was packed. They had oversold it by something crazy like 18 people. It was a small plane that had just two seats on either side of the aisle. I sat down and tried to get organized and situated quickly since I knew that the seat next to me would fill up any second. Amazingly enough, when we took off there was only one empty seat on the whole plane, and it was next to me! Time to stretch out and relax. I put the armrest up, and thoroughly enjoyed the extra room.

Perhaps the one thing that didn’t go my way on this trip was food… although it kept almost going my way. When I got to my gate in Dallas I had a few minutes before boarding, I was a little hungry, and I knew there would be no food on the plane unless you bought it. Just so that I would have a goal I decided to think of what I really wanted to eat before I went out in search of it. “A sandwich. That would be the perfect thing.” I thought. I looked up and to my right, and there was a sign that read, “Sandwiches”. So I went up the stairs to the sandwich shop only to find it closed. “Ok, what’s the next best thing? A bagel.” I walked around the corner and found myself face to face with a giant sign for Einstein’s Bagels… and it was also closed. “Ok, the next best thing… ice cream!” Six more steps around the next corner and I found a Ben and Jerry’s stand. The cheapest thing on the menu was $5. The cheapskate part of me was not into paying $5 for two scoops of ice cream when I could get a whole pint of the same stuff at home for $2.50. At this point I decided to just get the snack pack they had been pushing on us on my last flight. For $3 you got a nice grab bag with chips and M&Ms and crackers and all kinds of stuff. (more…)

This was a good day. Took Vader to the dog park in Madison with my Mom and Brother, had some delicious food, hung out with some family friends, made some more food, ate it, had an awesome birthday cake in the shape of a giant beetle with chocolate Twizzlers for legs, and went to the fireworks at Elver Park. I love the fireworks shows on the 4th. All the booming and whirring and whistling. It’s great.

Today will be my last day of Summerfest for this year. Last night Marcus Monroe had a barbeque at his house. It was a lot of fun. They even surprised me with a birthday cake. Andrew and Wayne were there and Andrew was in his full glory. He was hilarious, and at times it was like we were watching the Andrew show.

After my shows at Summerfest today, Vader and I head off to Madison for a few days since my brother Kent and his new fiancee Lissa are in town. I’m really looking forward to it.