Robert's Birthday Dinner (Take 1)

Every year, I have a hard time wrangling people together for Robert's birthday. And it's not just because his birthday's so close to Halloween (though that often doesn't help). For some reason October seems to be a hot month for weddings, showers, parties and I don't know what else - no one is ever available on the same weekend. And so it was this year. The only weekend our friends Nora and Joe could make was, of course, the only weekend my sister and brother-in-law, our friends Jo and Judy, Cindy and Biji could not. But, since I haven't seen Nora and Joe since January I told Biji to suck it and I went ahead and scheduled the dinner for the 18th!! (Before you feel bad for Biji, know that I told him about my reasoning and he was fine with it. We are going to try to get together on a weekend closer to Robert's actual birthday so he won't be completely left out. [Thus the "Take 1" mention in the title].) Luckily, Melanie and Wade were able to rewicker their plans so they, too, were able to make it.

We didn't do much - we had dinner at Claim Jumper and then just hung out at the condo for a bit. It may sound boring to some of you but we are boring and we had a very good time. :o)


This is just a photo I took while testing which flash I wanted to use. I'm sure Nora is thrilled.


I really like this photo - I only wish the remains of our meal were cleared off the table! And I felt a little bad for Wade... I'm so used to sitting next to Robert that I immediately yelled "Suck it in!" when the waiter started to take the photo. Then I realized I was sitting next to the wrong person and apologized. :o) Wade said he did suck it in, though.


Robert models his new hat from Nora and Joe.


It really had been a while since we'd gotten together with Nora and Joe - we hadn't ever forced them to play Rock Band! Something we rectified rather quickly.


I was very pleased Nora was finally persuaded to pick up the guitar. Then I felt bad because she's left-handed and we didn't do the lefty flip for her. She still did just fine.


No one ever wanted to sing so poor Melanie got stuck singing all but one of the songs.


I felt a little bad but I just had to get a photo of Nora while she still had her tummy. She said she doesn't have any photos of her pregnant yet! And she's 6-months along already!! I think she looks adorable.

We still have a dinner with Robert's family and the dinner with Biji to go so just sit tight - I'll have lots more Robert photos to come!

Rock Band Mania

Friday night Robert and I hosted a Rock Band event at our place and Emily, Paul, Cindy and Biji were all able to join us. I know - we are a hard-partying group, no? Still, I thought it was quite fun and I think everyone else enjoyed themselves, as well. No one (except Robert and I, of course) had played Rock Band before, which is why the event transpired in the first place. I secretly hoped I might kick someone's ass at something, given my minuscule advantage, but no. Well, I was leaps and bounds better than Biji but c'mon - that's not saying much. ;o) (I kid. I kid because I care.)


Biji and Robert started off the evening... those poor drums don't know what's coming.


Do you SEE how hard he's hitting the poor little drum pads?! Good grief!!!! I think the red one is about to fall right off! And the foot pedal didn't escape unscathed, either, trust me. Luckily, Biji only played the drums twice; I think he was afraid he'd have to buy us a new set if he broke it.

Paul also started out the evening on guitar.


Cindy's up for guitar duty while Emily's manning the drums.


Cindy has a somewhat relaxed physique while strumming... ;o) Unlike Guitar Hero, Rock Band does not advise against sitting down on the job!



Biji, too, has an interesting posture while playing the guitar. He seems unaware that it's not a ukulele.


Emily and Paul are laughing at Robert's "singing."


Hmmm... I'm not really digging my 'singing face.' I'm turning into Robert! Gah!





We laughed at Biji's "singing," too. A LOT. But at least he volunteered and took one for the team, unlike Emily some people I could mention... Oh, and the song Biji's, uh, singing along with is 'Dirty Little Secret.'


Even Cindy got up to sing... yay! She insisted she didn't know any lyrics but she sang along to virtually every song. Watch the video of Biji singing again - you can see Cindy mouthing the words through the entire thing! Still, I didn't think we'd get her to sing at all, so I give her major points for participating.

Now, I had heard of but never seen Emily's prowess at the 'expert' level on Guitar Hero. Well, she busted it out for Rock Band and it did not disappoint - it was awesome! I was in awe. Seriously. Now, you can't truly appreciate her skill here because you can't see the notes flying by on the screen but trust me - Emily's got some serious skills. I was (and still am) quite impressed.

Rock Band

Because we missed the boat on the whole Wii Fit thing, Robert pre-ordered Rock Back many moons ago. This benefited us in many ways, two of which are: (1) the price increased about a week before ours shipped out, but we got to keep our original, cheaper price; and (2) the game wasn't officially released until the 22nd but ours shipped out before that and we received it on the 23rd. Robert was stoked - he actually called me at work with a squeak in his voice because he was so giddy it had finally arrived. And I'm not kidding when I say that as soon as he got home Monday night, he set that bad boy up.

Robert is definitely enamored with his new game; he wants to play it from the minute he walks in the door. He doesn't want to change out of his work clothes or eat dinner - he just wants to play. It's difficult to wrest the drumsticks from his hand, I'll tell you that. I have actually only played the drums so far but It. Is. Fun. So fun! Me likey. I have always thought I should have learned a musical instrument and the drums would have been my choice, I think. I realize, of course, that 4 color-coded drum pads does not a drum set make BUT... I still think it's fun. (In fact, even though we could technically play together if one of us drummed while the other played guitar, Robert and I fight over who gets to drum and have as yet never played together. Oh well.) We really look like a couple of geeks. It's kind of sad.


What I don't like about Rock Band are the graphics - I'm so used to the Guitar Hero animation and circular notes that the RB rectangles and fuzzy band images just aren't doin' it for me. Robert disagrees, but he's dumb. I also don't like that the system doesn't squonk at you when you miss a note like it does on GH. I need clearer indications of my wrong-doing than the little red flash on the screen, people!! The public shame pushes me to play better... :o)

The other thing that sucks about RB is that it's not compatible with the GH guitars! The GH guitars use the Wii remote but all the RB instruments are wireless with a little adapter. So now if we want to actually use the 4-person player mode, we have to shell out another $60 for a RB guitar. Which will bring our grand total to 4. Where the heck are we supposed to store 4 fake guitars?! Blargh. I assume this is because the dudes that did the first two GHs jumped ship to do RB and wanted to stick it to Activision and their GHIII. And who suffers when Mommy and Daddy fight? The children. That's right - us. Stupid Harmonix and Activision pissing contest. Pleh.

Robert actually does the little drumstick tap countdown before each song... I'm a little embarrassed for him.

Note the deep concentration and 'Robert face' as he plays...

I know you're thinking "Why are they using their coffee table as a chair?" Well, because it's just the right height - our couches are leather and a few years old, so the cushions are all smushed down. Plus, it's too big a pain to move the coffee table every time we want to play sitting on the couch... and our only chair is a depository for crap. Right now it's holding a VCR, a backpack, my purse, a couple bags from Long's and a giant Koosh ball. So there you go. If we ever have anyone over for dinner, we'll be sure to wipe the table down for you, no worries.