Last year Sukie referred Guildy and Shinobi to an event in Moab, Utah, called Raft for the Cure, a rafting and eating expedition where half of the proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure Salt Lake City.

Well, they went, and had ridiculous amounts of fun. Which made us ridiculously sad that we were not able to go But we all have times in our lives where other things need the funds, and so the funds go to other things.

This year, we went, we saw, and we had a blast.

By blast, I mean, I would definitely go again! The rapids were not as rapid as the ones I went through on the Snake river up north in Idaho, but I was excited to go down the Colorado, spend some outside time with friends, and remember how much the sun hates me.

Wear sunscreen. Also, remember that sunscreen is going to be washed off when you jump in to the friggin river. I just couldn’t resist.

However, maybe I should have waited until after I’d lost 40 pounds. Except that probably wouldn’t have happened while on the boat, so I went for it anyway. The details of getting back in the boat for a 230 pound man are a subject of extreme hilarity. Like 2 people pulling and 1 person pushing. I very much blame my poor fitting life-jacket, which, though i could adequately tighten it around my large belly, also expected me to have rather large man-boobs to go with it, which sadly, I am not there … yet.

So I get on the boat and I’m just tired because it took a lot of effort to get in, and so Shinobi goes to pull his wife in and of course he must have just ratched up all the Ninja strength he has because she is lifted out of the water so easily that they both just topple over and there’s now three people floppin around in an unsteady boat and it’s just comical.

So I’m totally motivated to lose the poundage now, with a new target of 185-195 pounds. I don’t like to be tied to a number, but it’s gotta be lower than what I am now. Sheesh. So we got pulled pork sandwiches for dinner (though I could have eaten a lot more of those tasty burgers we had for lunch) and listened to three musical acts. The first was a girl whose music sounded a lot like Alanis Morisette or Jewel but wasn’t quite there and involved a lot of girlish self-doubt lyrics and being upset and you get the picture. Chicks, man. The next two acts were incrementally better, High Water and then a bluegrass band who absolutely rocked, but we just couldn’t stay for the 10 minute video at the end because we were wiped out. I slept the whole night in the tent on the mattress, I woke up a couple of times (twice, I looked over and the boy was sitting straight up. The second time I noticed that he was off the mattress and clearly not awake enough to realize that the reason he was sitting up was to get back on the mattress.)

So on the day we were leaving (yes, this blog is very non-linear) Sukie tells me that Guildy doesn’t want to go back to Moab next weekend (for the 4th!) because it will be raining. As I’ve recently been through a rainy camping trip I can tell you, this is brutal, and I was getting sold on the idea. So with me and Guildy in the ‘not going to Moab on the 4th of July’ group I was pretty sure we wouldn’t be going. However, half an hour before Sukie and I arrived in Moab (Guildy, Shinobi, and Guildy’s coworkers J and R arrived two hours before us), Guildy and Sukie talked and Guildy said ‘now that I’m here we’re totally coming back next weekend’ (that was to me from Sukie so it may not be 100% correct.) So now I was on the outs, but I’m good with that. One man against one woman is already an uphill battle, but you can’t win against two of thems.

Favorite moment:
“Ally’s boat is ready”
me to Shinbi: “but what about Ally’s sister’s boat”
“come back Ally’s boat! come back Ally’s Sister’s boat!”
*high fives*

eh, it was funny when we were standing around on a dock, waiting to leave. Our guide, Leland, had us ready to rock and roll well before any of the other boats but because of the order the boats were tied up we had to wait a long time while other people got to go. Lameness!

At Deseret Industries a few weeks ago I found an NES control deck and two of the classic NES controllers featured on my wallet for about 14 bucks total (NES:$8 Controller:$3/ea) so of course I snapped it up even though it had the wrong wall wart (13AC instead of 9AC) and God only knows the condition inside.

A few days later I bought the repair parts at nintendorepairshop.com – the part that was the magic bullet was the 72 pin connector at the back of the NES where the cartridge meets the road (so to speak). We’d tried the NES before at Frik’s house and it was flashy red lights. Red lights might mean bad to you but it means a lot of the system actually is working. I am not good with component repair (i.e., would be at a loss if I had to break out a soldering iron, though I can spot a popped capacitor, thanks to Dell for a bad string of PCs) so it was a boon to this process to know that the brains of the operation was fine, but that it was failing to read the cartridges.

When I got my fixin’ parts I busted open the NES to find that it is in deed a very very clean system. I blew it out with a can of air anyway, though. It may have only been in service for a while, and put away to rot in a far away bin, safe from dust bunnies. Or, probably just as likely, someone else has attempted repair of this NES before.

So I dropped in the new parts, put it all back together and fired up The Legend of Zelda. A few points of note, after playing a few games. Most emulators are just garbage – my favorite one actually runs too fast. My fancy Logitech controller does shit for D-Pad controls, when compared to my NES controllers (which I have yet to open up and clean out.) What is neatest about owning the actual cartridges is now I have the right to own ROM versions of those games!

Did you know the NES has it’s own protection against pirated games and whatnot? It needs to communicate to a chip in the cartridge or else you get blinky reds (the system fails to read it and resets itself.) I would bet that’s the deal with our copy of ‘Yo Noid’, because once when booting it I actually got a little music and saw a title.

Anyway, at my surprising party I got several NES games and I got the games my brother couldn’t sell (because they were non-working at the store) when he sold the NES. All of them work ‘cept for old Noid. I’m getting a bit to open up the cartridges and really clean them up soon.

Of course, now Sukie has discovered the Virtual Console on our Wii, so my NES collecting days are numbered. I will have to build a suitable display for my cartridges

You guys got me good.

I suspected a surprise party on Wednesday. However, several friends conspired to squash that idea from my head. Instead, we decided to go to the movies as a family.

There were so many things that stand out now, knowing how it all turned up. As we went to the movies, Sukie said she had invited some friends of ours, but that they couldn’t make it. This should have been a dead giveaway but I was so lost in my own world that I did not process it until after the fact. If she had in deed been dead set on not hanging out with anyone, why would she invite friends?

The night before we baby-sat for some other friends of ours – and then hung out, playing Ticket to Ride afterwards – I should have seen it coming.

Most telling, I should have listened to my gut, telling me something was up, early on.

So, after ‘Up’ when I got home and smelled smoke in the house (but not outside, necessarily) I was freaking out a little bit, thinking there was an electrical fire. I went and checked the fish tank immediately, but it was not there. Then I went around to the top of the stairs and Sukie said the dog had gotten out, which was puzzling since we have a solid door and walls holding the dog in. She’s old but resourceful, so I ran down. I was going to stop short in the door to the family room and had my hand up in a pointing gesture to say something about how it didn’t smell like the dog did something bad, but instead the lights went up and I saw more people than have ever been in my basement.

Oh, I am loved.

Well, that, and people love a good surprise. So I was dumbfounded, barely processing anything that was said, I know Guildy was talking to me and Shinobi was there and beyond that it is all just a big blur of people. Lucas walked by and said something, and I was just like … whoa. People filed out of the basement all saying something to me, probably mostly ‘Happy Birthdays’ but even today, days later, I am in total shock.

The party was awesome, with Bouncy Castles and presents and rad cakes and I don’t recall the last time I’ve had such a good day.

More on the Nintendo and yesterday’s activities later.