Ginger and the kids returned home today. Of course I was playing the PS3 when they arrived, so they were very interested in being able to play themselves. The kids have decided they really like the Little Big Planet game (or "Little Small World" as Catherine was referring to it for a while).
Now we have to get more controllers so we can all play. The problem there is that while I managed to get the system itself for "free", the accessories are going to bankrupt me. The controllers are $55 apiece. Now I admit that a Wii controller and Nunchuk will actually run you more than that, and the Wii is well known as a money sink hole on accessories, but I didn't realize the problem was so cross platform.
The problem is that online I can get the controllers for $42, if it was only a matter of $5 or less, I would go ahead and get them at a brick and mortar store, but $12 less is significant, especially since we're going to have to buy two so the kids can play Little Big Planet co-op with me (Ginger has said she refuses to play the system because the controller is just unnatural to her).
The other somewhat interesting thing that happened to today was Catherine reasoned out the truth about Santa Claus. It was extremely odd, she was taking her shower, and then just started explaining to us how it was impossible for Santa Claus to do everything he's suppose to be able to do. Honestly I was a bit taken aback. First off, why's she already thinking about Santa Claus and Christmas? Does she just have presents on the brain? Or is does she really plan that far ahead as to what she wants and how to get it? What exactly does she want that prompted this line of thought. Second, she came to the realization all by herself. I remember Quinn questioning things before we told him, but this wasn't her questioning it so much as this was her flat out stating that can't be. From an objective point of view I can't help but be a bit impressed at her logical reasoning and deductive process (especially considering I remember being much older than her before I realized the truth), but at the same time it's kind of sad that she's already grown up past that stage now.
Ginger and the kids left this morning for Richmond. They're heading down there so Quinn can attend the NASCAR race. Funny thing is this year Quinn still likes cars and racing just as much as ever, but he hasn't really been following NASCAR specifically as much as he has in the past. Mind you, that doesn't stop him from wanting to attend the race in the slightest.
So I mentioned to some of my co-workers that I had purchased a PS3 and now I have a ton of games for it. I've had multiple people let me borrow games now. Some of the people are people that work for me, so I'm a bit concerned that they're feeling obligated to let me borrow them, but since I didn't ask or suggest it and they volunteered, I'm hoping that's not the case. Still, I only let it bother me a bit because games for the PS3 system are crazy expensive. It feels odd having seven games to choose from already. In fact, it's almost too much. How do you pick just one. I started by playing Valve's Orange Box Half Life collection. I had never gotten Portal back when it came out and had always wanted to try it. It's a really good game, but I personally think it would be more playable (for me anyway) on a PC. I say this as someone that's played a lot of FPS games on the computer. Using a controller just feels weird, and I can't seem to get used to the movement sensitivity (which I believe is a lot easier to control with a mouse). I also briefly tried playing some of Assassin's Creed. Did I mention most of the games people let me borrow were older games back from when the PS3 first came out. Anyway, I have to admit, Assassin's Creed is stunning. I knew there was a huge difference between the graphics of the Wii and PS3 / XBox, but this is just crazy gorgeous. So far the PS3 isn't what I would call a kid friendly system. But it does have Little Big Planet, which is adorable and the kids really like it.
The PS3 has arrived. I've gotten it set up on the TV, but now that it's set up I've realized there's a flaw in my plan. It's on the main TV. It doesn't make sense to hook it up to the analog TV downstairs, so it's on the HD one. But that means I can only play games on it when that TV isn't being used by others (and by others I mean Ginger and myself watching TV). The obvious solution is to buy a new HD TV and take the current one down into the basement. I wonder how much that would cost and whether Ginger would be agreeable to this plan.
Today was the kids first day of school. They're only going for half days this week, which sort of doesn't even give them any time at all to do anything, so it's more like they're just hanging out around the school for a bit. Today was big for Catherine since this is her first year in elementary school. She had packed her book bag last night and I think she liked the book bag and packing it more than the idea of actually using it or taking it to the school. I am a tad bit concerned how things are going to go with both Quinn and Catherine in the same classroom (I'm envisioning a lot of fighting).
We had African Children Choir visiting our church today, which meant no Sunday School or kid's church. The odd thing is there appears to be some weird power struggle going on within our church. The pastor sent out an email earlier in the week telling people they could stay after the service to discuss any issues, but then in the service the board gave a statement basically criticizing that action and explaining that it was against some rules or something then put together they own meeting. I don't know what it all means, but I get the feeling someone's not happy about something. I guess we're just not involved enough to know all the intricate details about what's going on.
We went out for lunch, but once we were home Nana played with the kids while Ginger and I did chores. The kids played with the new remote control cars that Nana gave them yesterday. Meanwhile Ginger did some weeding outside while I worked on fixing that shutter that started falling off. The shutter is on the second floor, and I don't own a ladder that would let me get up that high (note: need to buy a ladder). A couple of the nails holding the shutter up had snapped. I was able to get one of the broken pieces out of the mortar, but not the second one. Luckily the one I was able to get out was on the top, so I took a trip to Home Depot, got some mortar in a tube and plugged up as much as I could then reset the shutter and pushed the nails back into the holes (hoping that once the mortar dries it'll hold it there for a while). The other shutter was warped from where the top nail which was suppose to be going through a piece of wood (placed there to hold the shutter slightly away from the brick) had fallen out. The piece of wood had fallen and twisted so it was pressing the shutter much further away from the wall than it should have. Since I have no ladder, I was basically hanging out the window trying to fix this stuff. The good news is I didn't fall, the bad news is I think if this works it'll just be a temporary patch job since that mortar in a can never really seemed to dry and stayed malleable no matter how long it sat.
I bought a PS3 today. It was somewhat against the wishes of Ginger who didn't think we needed one. And to a large degree she's right, we don't. However, there was a deal online that I couldn't pass up. In the previous months before Sony released the PS3 Slim the price of the PS3 was higher, and there was a deal online that showed up every so often that allowed you to buy the PS3 and basically get $300 off the price. It does require you to use a Sony credit card, and it's dependent on you buying the PS3 through their Sony Style website (which gets you a credit of $100) and then charging a total of $3000 dollars on the credit card within 6 months (which results in you getting another $200 worth of credit). So that's effectively like getting $300 back on $3300, which is way better than any other credit card refund offer I've seen. So with the price of the new Slims having dropped to $300 and then offer coming back online I felt like I couldn't not buy it. I mean it's basically free at that point. Ok, minus the part about having to charge $3000 dollar in six months it's free, but really, we sometimes shop at Whole Foods, charging that much over six month isn't that difficult (the hardest part is going to be convincing Ginger not to be embarrassed about to use a Sony Playstation card to buy things).
Plus, it's a Blu-ray player, and those are expensive all by themselves, much less one that comes with a game system. So getting all that for next to nothing makes me think that particular offer going live again must have been a mistake or something, because it wasn't live for that long before they took it down. It's since been replaced with the much inferior get $100 off offer (and all you have to do is get the credit card and use it at Sony Style to get the PS3). Which I suppose isn't a terrible deal, but it's nowhere near as good as the deal I managed to snag.
Ginger and the kids returned home today. Of course I was playing the PS3 when they arrived, so they were very interested in being able to play themselves. The kids have decided they really like the Little Big Planet game (or "Little Small World" as Catherine was referring to it for a while).
