Movie Madness

So we haven't been to the movie theater since the third Pirates movie came out. This week we went twice. And remembered why we don't go to the theater. A)Chris managed a theater and notices every flaw in both the theater and the movie. B)Movies are super expensive. C) The biggest reason of all- Movies generally are not that great.
This week we saw The Hulk, which wasn't a bad movie, but not worth $25 to see. It didn't help that it was out of focus the entire movie either. But it was fun because we went with some friends, but I can watch a movie with friends at home, and on Blu-Ray so its never out of focus unless it should be. Saturday we went and saw Wall-E, the new Pixar movie. How can you go wrong with a studio that has a pretty much flawless record? That's what we thought. But I was really disappointed. Not to say that the movie wasn't good, but it didn't live up to Pixar standards. The animation was awesome, don't get me wrong. But I feel like Pixar stopped short of what the movie could be. I loved the robot parts, they were funny and very entertaining. I would still recommend seeing it for sure, but don't get your hopes too high.

Weight loss...

So it's been a good week. A really good week. Since April my assignment at work was to change my classroom so that it would pass the state re-inspection. Unfortunately, changing my classroom did not involve much, only changing the attitudes and habits of my fellow teachers. Needless to say, it was somewhat stressful. And some of you may know that I don't necessarily do well with a lot of stress. Thank goodness that Chris is so patient. Anyway the state inspector came back for his re-inspection this last Tuesday. And the final verdict? We passed. Hooray! The best weight loss program ever. I haven't felt lighter in a long time. Anyway that's my big news. Now I get to apply and interview for the job that I've been doing for the last 3 months and get my classroom ready for re-accreditation. Sounds like fun.

alphaBETA

So I got an invite to a very exciting Beta to a game I am not officially allowed to mention but is of the same family as R6. I'm very excited as I always love being in betas, but more importantly I LOVE TC games. I'll be sure to post some generic notes about the game- we'll call it something entirely different... sorry I have to be semi-mysterious- I had to sign an NDA (yeah already, I know!). I'll, umm, communicate more as I get to start. I don't even get the game till the 15th, but still...guess I know what I'll be doing that week.
-Chris

And the mystery visitor of two weeks ago is...

Nick the Alfajor! Congrats to Nick on winning our lovely prize of a 10 days/11 nights trip to San Diego. Where he enjoyed sun, surf, sand, mexican food, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, lots of time doing nothing, and of course lovely Knotts Berry Farm (home of the world famous Boomerang and The Jaguar). For more details on the exciting trip stay tuned as we recap the highs and lows of Nick, the now graduated from High School, Waite's visit to see his favorite sister and brother-in-law.
-Chris

Why I hate the Nintendo DS

So the irony of this post is that I don't really hate the DS- per se. (I'm not even allowed to hate the DS b/c A) I play games on Alicia's sometimes and B) Oh yeah, I bought Alicia's for her for her birthday)What I hate is what it's doing to certain video games... allow me to explain: See I'm not the guy who thinks that if it's not "HardCore," it's crap. That's not me at all. In fact some of my favorite games are deffinetly not hardcore, but see this is where I have a problem. The following is a quote from Ubisoft UK managing director Rob Cooper:
"Sony needs to show us a bit more about what its plans are to convince the publisher to invest lots more money into it. Especially when you've got the DS selling at such a tremendous pace.

"I suppose it's almost too technical for the casual person, those that are buying the DS at the moment, who want a few buttons and not a lot more. It's so simple what [Nintendo] has done. That's where I think Sony has gone a little bit too complicated, they've over-specced it, the price is too high and they need to go back to the drawing board and start again," he added. (From Gameindustry.biz)

See my problem is this- I don't want less buttons. I don't care! I can handle the fact that my current controllers have...(let's see... 1,2,3,4,5...13 plus 3 joysticks)13 plus 3 directional pads of some sort. Heck, I play PC games they have...(let's see...1,2,3,4...100+) something like 104 or so keys- WHY do I need less!?! Furthermore, I love my PSP- part of the reason I own it is b/c it is technologically superior, heck I can use it to wacth a Movie, and TV show, play several games, and listen to music, all with out having to carry anything more than the PSP itself (yes I can do all of those off a single Memory stick that I load into the side of it, no movies, no game discs, nothing but the PSP alone). Most of the reason we bought our PS3 was b/c the Blu-Ray looks so nice on our TV, heck the Wii didn't even offer the ability to listen to a CD or DVD on it. So what this guy is saying is that the rest of the industry should do just like Nintendo did with both the DS and the Wii (like I said here's the irony, cause you guessed it- we own a Wii too) but what if we don't always want the kind of garbage that is put out on the Wii and DS (Case in point: Petz series from the fool who opined this to begin with- I'd like to add that I think it is a travesty that we are teaching an entire generation of kidz that it's OK to spell using Z as the letter to indicate plurality... oh yeah and that whole Dogz Fashion...ughhh shoot me now!). So where am I going with this? Easy.

While I don't mind the collection of games that inhabit the Wii and DS and I really like the idea that more people are "in to" games and all things that go along with video games, I really wish that certain publishers would stop saying that we are all the same and that the games that might appeal to my niece, Madison, or to my parents (proud Wii owners, I might add), should be the games that I want to own. Cause so help me if all I can buy 2 years from now is Petz and stinking Raving Rabbids I'm gonna sell all my video games and take up a new hobby like cross-stitching.

I have my own abilities and sometimes I like the complex and harder games, sometimes I like technology that is forward thinking not just two palm pilots merged together. Ah well what a world we live in when the white boy in SoCal has to cry out that he too is an individual and can think and act apart from everyone around him.

-Chriz

Famous, almost

This is just a realy funny side story. For those of you who may have hoped that I had grown up (read matured) and mellowed out after serving some time in the bishopric- lemme direct you to the following interaction I recently had with a friend of ours.

I am so funny

-Chris

Fired!

Yup I might as well be because I apparently have no time to blog (I'm thinking of a good reason why Lish can't- I'll let you know when it hits me). In the mean time you should know that I have started on 3 posts only to have the thought train either A) Leave the station without me or B) Derail mid-post. Kinda sucks. So a quick catch up on all the ongoings: In the last 2 weeks I have: WORKED, worked, worked oh yeah and had to go into work once or twice. Lots of church (as usual) and then there was the random visitor. I'll have to let you know more about him in a future post. But in the mean time... oh yeah, played some video games (not too much believe it or not), went to Knotts Berry Farm- flashback to 20 years ago, got beat up something fierce at KBF, stupid Boomerang, surfed a couple times, been informed of the dangers of crabs (don't ask you don't want to know), hung out with friends, BBQ'd, took care of some shopping, including the addition of 15 or so 12-packs of the new dew flavors, and even got in a baseball game. Most of said activities were directly or indirectly a result of the visitor.
Well I gotta run- I'll convince Lish to post later or something.
-Chris

Back in the Game

So aside from the lack of posts for awhile (funny thing is I have 3 incomplete posts just chillin') I decided to scratch down the happenings. I'm back in the game. What does that mean? Well see when I moved to SD I decided that I wanted to surf, no matter what. It happened, fairly quickly I might add. I bought a board within weeks and I was out within days and riding. Problem was I bought a damaged board. I know, I know, how bad? Well I thought I got it fixed with some Solar Resin- turns out there was more damage than I knew about. So I rode the pants off the board for about a year and change, then it happened- the bulge. See overtime you get seawater into the foam and it expands. So I had to bow out, sure I rode a couple more times, and it was all good, but in the end... yeah I had to stop riding. Then there was the whole getting boards to the beach, etc. that I just didn't have time to do, esp since I'd use the cherokee to transport, and it was a nightmare sometimes. So then we bought Blue Steel and found that we could get a Thule Roof rack through Chev for CHEAP. So we bought. And then I used some savings and a 20% off and got a surf rack- mind you this is the best rack I could envision: ease of use, secure, fast. It's sweet. So now the issue is no longer transport it's boards. So I took up my friend Natalie on her offer to buy her board. Now those of you who know me well know that I have a scar in between my eyes from a surfing accident- yeah well guess I bought the board that gave that too me. Figure it's part of me, and I it. So I ran it down to Joe Roper's and am having the nose fixed up on it some. Oh yeah, and we decided to utilize Costco's sweet softy sale. Got an 8' softy for next to nothing. So we now have 2 boards AND a way to get to the beach. So I guess it's not just me in the game, time to haul Lish out again. Plus, on the bonus side, Jeff has convinced me to go out some Sat mornings with them... we'll see how I do. Anywho, I'm back and ready to ride with all my free time, er something like that.

The Proof is in the Pudding, Pt. II

So you know I don't think I could have asked for more cooperation to drive home my whole UCSD vs. SDSU than the last week has provided me. First of all was the Taekwondo story (here) and now there is THIS! Now this thing is so big that I know people back East that heard about it. We're talkin' CNN AND Fox News big. You know drugs are really, really bad, but drugs mixed with weapons and lots of cash- yeah now you're just plain out of control. It's times like this that I want to make sure I distance myself from SDSU even more. Btw- as a corollary to what I started out talking about which was sports teams don't help you have a better school always... read THIS. That's right another reason that I wish people would just forget that SDSU is even part of San Diego. Now just in case there's any questions
A) I do NOT go to SDSU
B) I do NOT do crack
C) I do NOT involve myself in any way with ANY SDSU sports team.

The funniest part to all this is how I was decried by people I know when earlier this year Alicia and I posted about Foreign Frat Parties with Guns, turns out that we had it all wrong. Not only do frat boys have guns in the army but they apparently LEARN how to have such ragin' parties at home when they go to school at SDSU. Yup, so you have Local Frat Parties with Guns! Good thing that whole frat boy stereotype is so off-basis, huh!?!
-Chris

Resistance is Futile, OR My Gas is More Expensive the Your Gas

I have been holding out. Fighting, if you will. And I dodged the bullet one more time, but I don't know how much longer I can take it. I may have to do the unthinkable and put in $4/gal gas pretty soon. Currently the average in SD is something like $3.98. Too bad only Costco hits below that #. Seems that every where I look it's $4.03 or more. But I found a sweet little oasis of $3.95 where I barely could bring myself to put in 3 gallons- I did it mostly cause I needed to wash the windows and that was best way to do it. Good thing I did, cause it rained today- I didn't even have to wash the whole car just the windows and POOF! rain. I'm good. Now I just wish I could get the same kind of results with my science.

The Proof is in the Pudding

So in following with my post earlier today about success. I got on the bus this afternoon and lo and behold the headline of the school newspaper read, "Top Taekwondo Teams Can't Bully UCSD at Nationals." Yup seems UCSD is a national powerhouse in individual AND team taekwondo - GO TRITONS (yes that really is our mascot)!
Now if only i can convince them that we need a science decathlon...
-Chris

Raise in Rent

So when I always pay rent, the first thing I think is how I could be owning a house in UT or ID right about now. So imagine how much worse it was when we got the official news that our rent would be going up again, not too much mind you, but still that's a few hundred more a year. However, it all seems to even out. How you ask? Easy. I got a call from Michelle (my sister) it was currently snowing at their house in UT. Meanwhile I was down in La Jolla enjoying SUN and about 68, with a slight breeze, just enough to keep it enjoyable.
Well when you put it that way...
Maybe I will just shut up about the rent.
-Chris

The Measure of Success

A funny thing happened to me today while I was looking at my e-mail. I realized that success is such a subjective thing. Now I know what you're thinking- Well, DUH! But I mean it is something that is REALLY only in the eye of the beholder. The perfect example comes from me moving to San Diego. Whenever I told people in Utah that I was going to UC San Diego they immediately said, "Oh yeah, San Diego State, I had a nephew who went there." (mind you this nephew was legally stupid as a rock) And I would try to help them understand that UCSD is NOT SDSU (I know that dang trickery of including San Diego in the name of two universities within the same city). See here's the thing SDSU is ummm great as a... place to go get edumacated but the truth is it is part of the notoriously under-performing Cal State school system. They're good, but it's like a half scoop of vanilla ice cream- yeah it gets the job done, but really? Whereas UCSD is part of the better-performing UC system, which at least means A) We're bigger and B) We have more money- plus it means professors actually want to teach here. Now there are other major differences- UCSD is in La Jolla, at the beach; SDSU is in La Mesa, near... lots of poor Mexicans? But that aside- why is that no one has ever heard of UCSD or seems to think anything of it? Because according to how they measure success UCSD is a failure. See most people think of universities and immediately think, " When was the last time I heard that name in an athletic event?" And this is where UCSD REALLY fails. See UCSD has several national champion teams, as well as many top 25 teams (something like 10 or so), trick is there all in rich SoCal sports. I mean a national championship in Ultimate Frisbee is really cool, but who follows it? How bout our top 5 mens AND womens POLO teams? yeah thought so- hey we also are top 5 WATER POLO. Oh yeah, and lest we forget that we a have a national individual champion going to our school, for fencing (the sport NOT the selling of hot goods). And the list goes on - Nat'l Champ Surf Team and Individual, equestrian top 25... you get the idea. But see that means nothing because we don't belong in the Big Ten in football, or belong to the ACC in basketball. So then the next question is this: How does your team's performance help you get a better degree? Well Iguess there's the money that comes in- money is always good- but see UCSD received the most research dollars of ANY public institution last year, oh yeah and we're a top school in science both training and research (we're always top 3 usually #1). See for me as a scientist I think that THIS is success. Too bad some people in my own family still don't know where I go to school...
Yes I know this seems to come across as me bragging and making myself better, and in a lot of ways it is. But it is also this moment that I realized that when I chose UCSD I had already started to realize the real success lies in where can I get the best PhD, not where can I catch the best game. Now don't get me wrong, I think sports are great, heck I would have been one of the first to buy tickets to games had I gone to Wisconsin, but I don't regret choosing school first.
-Chris

I'm so much Hotter than YOU!

Yes you heard it here first- I'm hotter than alls ya alls. Course the only way to measure accurately is to use a dosemetry badge and ring. Which according to mine is hotter than anyone else I know. That's the perks from doing 5 radioactive experiments in the last month or so. You know (well actually you don't otherwise this conversation wouldn't be happening), I don't like radioactive stuff. I play with really nasty stuff too. Today, again, for the fourth time, in about 6 weeks, I used 64Cu, which is really hot copper. So hot it was at 21 mCi when it shipped- creepier still- it was only 1 ul that they sent me. HOT!!! To put this in perspective: I was exposed to the equivalent of 6 or so hours of continuous MRIs (you know the medical imaging technique). Yeah kinda bad. Good thing I use a LEAD VEST of DEATH, 100's of pounds of lead blocks, lots of plexiglass (the 1/2" stuff nonetheless) and of course my safety goggles. So NO, I'm not going to be glowing just yet- but let me tell you what a pain this is to use this kind of precautionary equipment. First of all- I have to wear PANTS and SHOES- yes, I know, I work in a lab, but see it's in San Diego... look even PIs here wear flip-flops to lab (and yes shorts too). Then I have to wear a lab coat ALL DAY. Oh yeah and then double glove & the whole 25lb lead apron dragging you down. Then you have to work around these stacks of lead and plexi- all while listening to a Geiger counter go non-stop. Now do for 8 hours or so- rushing b/c the half-life of this stuff is 12 hours so no time to waste- except you spill a drop and it may take you 2 hours to clean it up so be VERY careful, very FAST, all in lead.
On an ironic side note that super hot Cu that I receive comes overnight via FedEx- best part according to the manifest, it is safe to be carried on passenger planes. Hmm, makes you wonder what your luggage is really sitting next to in the belly of that plane, huh?
Now everyone has a wonderful insight into why I can't stand radioactive days. But hey, all in the name of science.
-Chris

Back in the Saddle Again

Yup, finally found a few spare minutes in which I didn't want to just lie in front of the TV or on the bed. So a quick catch up on all that's been going on. Well, Lish is in full swing with her "new" work- for those who haven't talked physically with us you may not know that for the time being Alicia is serving as the interim Lead teach at work. That's the "good" part. The bad part is that they got to this point b/c things were so far down the tubes that the other lead lead them to fail their recent evaluation from some state honcho. So they have asked Alicia to please serve as a temporary lead in an effort to steer the ship that is their class from the rocks of absolute failure. So for the last few weeks Alicia has been serving as the lead for her class, far more stress than she had hoped, but that being said everyone who comes in says how much better the class is since she took over. So... in true Alicia fashion she is doing awesome and will lead the class forward towards a passing score.
Now for me, hmmm what to say? I've been working like a dog in an effort to get some serious data so that I can get another paper out. I'm getting mixed results some good, some bad, and quite a few - huh? Yup I don't even pretend to know the answers to some of what I'm seeing. I am however getting sick of all my radioactivity work. If it's not [Cu64] it's [C14]. Which by consolation will allow me to really screw with any isoradioanthropochronologist b/c he'll never be able to carbon date me. So anywho, yeah lots and lots of work. Which leads me to my rant (didn't think I'd post without one did you?). I'm really frustrated with the narrow-mindedness of people. I wish that people, random ones from Church and family members alike, would learn how real PhD programs work (real vs PhD lite (Lite= something like a PhD in PoliSci or English)). Why do I wish they'd learn? Cause I'm sick of having to explain the non-answer to the question: So, how much longer? I don't know. How much longer you gonna live? Don't know? Why not? Same reason for why I don't know how much longer I'm gonna be. Now that isn't saying I'm not gonna get it till I die. It's just that there are a LOT of factors. It's not like I just have to take some classes and write a paper or two (that would be a PhD lite) I have to do ground breaking research and LOTS of it. And in case you failed your science classes, research doesn't always work. So how than in the cosmos am I supposed to know what will and won't work? If I knew I wouldn't be doing research would I? So then the question is how much more research? Well exactly twice as much as it is half. I don't know- I'm hoping year or so more. Reality says whenever I have made my contribution to science.
Well I'm done.
Good to be posting again. Maybe, I'll try again tomorrow.

AVA Review- A collection of 2nd timers

Yeah I know, I said 4 weeks ago I'd talk about the show. Eh, you get what you pay for (that's right cheap-skates!). So the deal is, for those of you who don't know, AVA is the abbreviation for Angels and Airwaves which is a band featuring the singer/guitarist of the now-defunct Blink 182, Tom DeLong, along with guitarist David Kennedy (Boxcar Racer, Hazen Street), drummer Atom Willard (the Offspring, Rocket from the Crypt), and bassist Ryan Sinn (the Distillers). So Tom, an SD native, got some of his friends together and created a band whose main aim is Emotional Rock, AKA ambient rock, or in otherwords, sensory based rock. It is a type of music that has more invested energy than your typical generic rock. The songs have meaning and often times convey real feelings or sensory of more than just auditory value. What does all this mean? Well it sounds kinda strange to hear it described, but if you listen it kinda invokes this idea that you should be hearing it as a soundtrack to a rock opera, or in some huge stadium. Often times the band cites 80's U2, Springsteen, The Police, Pink Floyd, etc. as influence for how to construct the album. Anywho, it's good post-punk music that shows a very emotional side of Tom and co.
Alicia is a big fan of their stuff, as am I, so that should tell you something. With two albums out they aren't exactly huge, but certainly not small time either.
The show/experience went down at SOMA- which is in its third iteration. The venue, having been there a few times now, is very much what you would expect to find in the mid-90's SoCal punk scene. Dark, concrete, no seats, smallish stage, enclosed, and above it all- in a strip mall next to the Sports Arena (a huge Delta Center-esque venue).
The opening acts were a mixed bag. Some bands that I could have passed on and one that was a new found goodness. "Ace Enders and a Million Different People," is a band consisting of a collection of distinct people all supporting the main singer/songwriter/guitarist- who ironically enough is called... Ace Enders. You may know him best as half of the songwriting/singing effort that fronted the now defunct band "The Early November." Good stuff, slightly more chill than emo and yet more demanding than elevator music. It had a nice sound, so good, in fact, that we picked up the album while we were there (hard to say no to a CD and T-shirt for $15). The next opening band was a group called, "The Color Fred." Featuring, (you guessed it) ex-band, "Taking Back Sunday,"'s guitarist. Ehh, folksy rock, eh. Last up was a group that I had seen several times before (couldn't place where until they said where they're from), "Meg and Dia," straight out of SLC. Well technically I think it's Draper. Anyway, whiny, ehh, so-so, could have left them too.
But then the moment finally came, the main event. Angels and Airwaves. A small stage, three flags at an angle, nothing much to it. Oh yeah and after it started LOTS OF LIGHTS AND SOUND. They were LOUD, and if I even thought I had epilepsy I would have gone into seizures like mad. Holy spinning lights, Batman.
Yeah the band played for about an hour and a half straight. It was good. Playing almost every song off both albums. They did a nice little 3 song encore just to show they could. It was a strange feeling. You could tell they enjoyed being home. But yet it felt like they were trying so hard. Maybe, because they had family and friends in the crowd they had to push harder.
So survey says: 7.5/10
Would I go again? Yes, in a heartbeat. Would I pay $50 to go? Nope. Would I recommend them to anyone? If you liked Blink, especially songs such as Adam's Song, Stay Together for the Kids, or Anthem, or if you liked the album Boxcar Racer you'll enjoy this. If not, well this isn't gonna change a whole lot of opinions. Yes there is more to them than just punk, but the root of it all is that SoCal angst.

BTW- Irony is that 3 of the 4 bands that played were all made up of defunct bands. So Alicia and I were commenting that this should be called the "Comeback Tour." I'm thinking more along the lines of, "Yet Again," or, "One More Chance Tour."

Wacky Wednesday!

For those of you who may not know...I spend 8 hours 5 days a week with around 23 two year olds. And although they keep me laughing most of the time, there are days (few and far between) when I wonder if I've chosen the right career. Today was one of those days. This morning was a complete disaster. No matter what I tried (or anyone else for that matter) they (the kids) insisted on running and screaming and generally ignoring anything and everything. So after nap and snack, when 10 or so of these little 'friends' (I use the term loosely at this point) decided that drums, pianos, and tambourines would be fun, I didn't figure it would do me any good to try and coerce them to stop. So as Chris so eloquently put it, "If you can't beat'em, join'em." And that's exactly what I did. I grabbed a tambourine and asked the band what they wanted to play. Before we were done 25 minutes later(that's an eternity in 2-year old time), we played about 8 encores of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" a few rounds of ABCD's (yes, that's the same as the ABC's, but I have a friend who must think the D feels left out), some "Wheels on the Bus" and "Old MacDonald" and some other songs mixed in as well. We kind of died out with Old MacDonald though. Too Bad. But after the morning we had, I was extremely impressed with myself for containing and entertaining my little friends. And in the peak of it all I think I had every child (16 at that point) either playing, singing, or watching with great interest. And any adult within a 3-mile radius was probably wondering when the sky was going to fall, but hey, we had fun right?

Tickle This!

So last week on our way home from doing baptisms with the 2 youth in our ward we went to WalMart to pick up a few things. I will never again go to WalMart on a Friday night, it was scary. I don't think anybody there had anything else going on at all, because I've never seen so many S...L...O...W... people in my entire life. Then, every time I turned right my shopping cart sounded something like "ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk." The worst shopping cart I've had in a while. But on a Friday night after a long week, it was almost entertaining and I wasn't about to go try to switch it out. As we're meandering through the toiletries section looking for hair goop, I turn around a corner and WHAM! there it is. A very, very, overweight woman wearing a bright red T-shirt with Elmo on it. But the worst part? Her shirt said very plainly "Tickle This!" Ewww. No thanks. Really, no thanks. After I had cleared a path and my head we wandered to the electronics/DVD/video game section ( a must at any store on any given shopping trip). As I walked past the cashier stand I noticed a tiny palm tree affixed to the corner of the booth. Rubberbanded to the tree was a very small Michaelangelo figure. I took a picture but I haven't retrieved it from my phone yet, but I will post it as soon as I can. Very entertaining. I still haven't been able to complete poke out my mind's eye enough to get rid of 'Tickle This!," but what can you do?

WaHoo for Map Packs!

Yes we've been AWOL for a week. Yes there has been crazy amounts of stuff going on, yes we'll try to get it all posted this weekend. But in the mean time. Call of Duty 4- my absolute vice in the world right now has just released their expansion map pack!!! Sweet there goes another week of my life!
-Chris

Caesary Chavez

Cesar Chavez is one of my favorite people this week. Who is he and why, you ask? His name is Cesar E. Chavez, and when pronounced really quickly (as in on the radio the other day) he sounds like a nice, flavorful dish. And, according to a sign posted at the ECEC (my work) last week, and I quote "ECEC will be closed March 28 due to Cesar Chavez." Why wouldn't he be one of my favorite people? So Chris and I got to take the day off after 2 very crazy stressful weeks. We had big plans for Friday. We did. But when you wake up and it is overcast and only about 55 degrees, it makes it really hard to want to go to the beach and go body boarding. Wah wah wah, all of you who live in the cold say, but 55 IS cold here, (no matter what you try to tell me!) Anyway...we spent the day playing video games, cleaning and sewing. Which I think is just what we needed...a day off.