The Car Doctor's Garage

Daddy Daughter Tubing Date

2011-08-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

I've got some free time at work today so I thought I would post about my 9 year old daughter's first tubing experience last weekend.

After taking her older brother out tubing several times this summer Sarah has felt left out. I was unsure about how she would do with as young as she is, so I figured we'd take it easy and not venture too far from shore. We went to Lincoln Beach and launched into the shallow bay east of the campground. She was very nervous about getting separated, so I had us tethered together with a 15 foot rope.

She got the hang of it pretty quick and soon we had kicked out to four feet of water. We were both fishing with a night crawler under a bobber and I had some jigs on my other pole. Her bobber was the first to go under. I had to point it out to her because the fishing part of our trip was not first on her agenda. The bobber came back up and started swimming towards her. Being a 9 year old girl with bare legs dangling in the water, she panicked. I convinced her to reel it in and I would net the fish. It worked and we had a white bass in the basket.

Not long after, I was unhooking her second white bass. When I got done, I looked up and my bobber was no where to be found. I reeled in the slack, set the hook and immediately knew it wasn't another white bass. The fish headed straight under me and I made my first mistake of the day when announced that I felt it brush past my leg. I didn't think much of it and landed a nice cookie cutter cat.

I decided to unhook our tether(my second mistake) because she was doing so well controlling the tube. Well, the next time I pointed out to her that her bobber was missing, she didn't want anything to do with it. By the time I kicked my way over to her, the bobber had gone down and up a half dozen times and I reeled in a bare hook.

My daughter decided she was done fishing for the day so she followed me around for another 30 minutes while I landed two more white bass, then we headed to shore.

Although she is unsure about the fishing part, she had a fun morning tubing with her dad.

Flippery Feline Fish

2011-07-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Megan's new word: Flippery

Used in a sentence: "Dad, I won't hold that fish if it's going to be all flippery!"

I took Megan, Aaron and my Dad out to LB Saturday morning, and it turned out to be a productive day. We launched at 7:30ish and headed over to the mouth of the benjamin slough where we've had good success for cats for that last month or so. We did our usual with a night crawler under a bobber. (why does the spell check not recognize 'bobber' as a word?) We managed to boat two bull heads and lost a nice channel cat as we were trying to get it in the net. I missed a whole lot of bites and I'm thinking maybe I need to buy a hook sharpener. At 9:00 the biting stopped and at 9:30 we headed out to find a new spot.

We headed over to what I think is called "the L" and anchored in about 4 feet of water. Most of us took our bobbers off and just sunk the worms weightless. I left the bobber on my daughters pole because I figured it would be easier for her to detect a strike. It worked and she soon boated a nice channel cat. I convinced her (and the fish) to hold still for a quick picture.

We boated a total of 4 channels, 2 bullheads and one carp to use for bait next time. At one point my Dad had something REALLY big hooked (I don't think I've ever seem a pole bend so much) but his line broke as we were getting ready to net it. I'm guessing the first thing he did when he got home was change out his 20 year old line.

Monopoly Streets Review (Xbox 360)

2010-11-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

I have fond memories of playing Monopoly with my siblings. We'd spend hours and hours on Sunday afternoons playing on the living room floor. My kids on the other hand will play a board game for about 10 minutes before they start fighting about who's turn it is, who cheated who, does the dice that roll on the carpet count?, ext.

I really get excited when I see these classic board games come to the consoles or the PC. For $39.99 Monopoly streets is worth every penny. No more messing around with counting play money, bumping the board and not knowing where the houses/hotels go, or keeping track of who's turn it is.

In total, there are about 8 different boards that you can unlock. You start with the classic 2D board and the 3D board you see in the previews. Now when I say 2D, it's just the board is flat like the real game although your characters, the game pieces, the die and Mr Monopoly are all 3D and animated. There is another 3D board that you can unlock where the properties are named after famous places from around the world. Then there are a half dozen or so flat themed boards. I've unlocked the Sweets board, (the properties are named after desserts) and the cheese board (named after cheeses). (I was hungry when I picked them.) There is also an ice board, a jungle board a card board and some kind of park board to unlock. Thank goodness each board has it's own music. I find in these types of games the same music over and over can get annoying. By playing you earn points to unlock these new boards and also some additional playing pieces.

The playing pieces are the same from the classic game. You've got the car, the boat, the hat, the wheel barrow, the dog, ext. You can unlock the money bag and the iron. (Hmm, I don't recall seeing the thimble. I wonder if I just missed it or if its coming in DLC.) Besides the playing piece, there is also a character to run around board with it. Each piece has it's own character or you can use your avatar as the character. The default characters get old after a while, so I imagine most people will use their avatars.

I haven't played around with rules much, but there are lots of options. Besides the classic rules, there are also some preset rules for speeding up the game, which are nice for playing online.

YES, in this version you can play online! And it's a lot of fun. As long as you are not the host, if you want to quit early you can declare bankruptcy and exit the game and the others will be able to continue. If you are the host and you quit, the game is over, which is frustrating after you've been playing for a while. I've mostly just played with my family so far. I love the fact that I can start one game with one of my kids, play for a while, save it for later and start a new game. That would be impossible with the physical board game.

The New Mechanic

2009-04-17T10:41:00.001-07:00

A gynecologist, tired of his profession and wanting less responsibility, decided a career change was in order. After some serious thought he decided that being an engine mechanic, something he had enjoyed up to the time he entered college, would be a good profession.

However, it had been a long time since he had tinkered with an engine and he knew that to work on any of the newest engines and be able to compete with the younger work force, he would have to go to school. So he enrolled in a technical institute that specialized in teaching auto mechanics and pretty much aced the course.

The final exam however, required each student to completely strip and reassemble a complete engine. So it was with some trepidation he took on the task.

At completion, he turned the engine over to his instructors for evaluation and awaited his final grade. When the grades were handed out he did a double take at the 150% grade he received.

Rather confused, he asked his instructor how it was possible to have a grade like this. The instructor replied that it really quite simple. He gave him 50% for correctly disassembling the engine, 50% for correctly reassembling the engine and an additional 50% for doing it all through the tail pipe.

Twins' Dance Recital

2009-04-08T21:02:00.000-07:00

Random 2-year-old Funny

2009-04-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

About a week ago was the twins' birthday (my wife has the festivities covered on her blog) and Sophie was helping me wrap gifts. She knew they were for her older sisters, but I guess she wanted one for herself. She left the room for a minute and comes back in with her favorite dolly and puts in on the wrapping paper I had just cut out for one of the twins' gifts. So I take the hint and wrap it up for her. She was just delighted! The dolly didn't stay in the wrapping paper for very long, but this is what I love about 2-year-olds: She layed down of the floor, put the paper around her and said "my turn".

The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd

2009-02-13T11:01:00.000-08:00

My mom forwarded this to me. I have forgotten how hard I had it as a kid.

If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning....

Uphill... barefoot...

BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a darn Utopia!

And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen!

Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! No where was safe!

There were no MP3' s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the stinkin' record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone... cause that's how we rolled dig?

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school,your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen....forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted
five minutes back in 1980 or before!

Regards,
The over 30 Crowd

The game that got me back into gaming.

2009-01-28T11:32:00.000-08:00

Another gamerdad, Twin Moons, got me thinking about my gaming history. I grew up playing video games. Pong, Atari, Commodore 64, NES, went right along with Hot Wheels, Lego's, and Star Wars action figures for me. In high school however, I lost interest. Part time jobs, cars, friends seemed to occupy most of my time. Then off to college, a two year mission for my church, more college, full time job, marriage, buying a house, first child, finishing the basement, having twins........
Thats when I decided I needed I need an outlet. A hobby, something relaxing that I could pick up and do at home in the evenings after work and in between taking care of kids. My Ebay found Nintendo 64 was the answer! It was not the current console at the time, but it had been 15 years since I had last picked up a controller so I was a little intimidated by the current Game Cubes, PS2's and original Xbox's.
I don't remember all the games that came with the console, but one was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time. The original Zelda game from the NES was one of my favorites, so I figured I'd give this one a shot. Oh man, was I blown away. The graphics, the story, the 3D environment, the music, I really felt as if I had entered another world; something I had never experienced in a game before. Monica, who at the time had never looked at a video game for more than five seconds, was also caught up in the game just watching me play and reading the strategy guide for me. This was one of the few games that I never wanted to end.

gamerdadslive.com video

2009-01-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

This is a video I made for the GDL website. The whole family had fun doing it, especially Aaron who got to run the video camera for most of the shots. Monica would often come in and see me editing and just roll her eyes, but she thought it was funny in the end.

We've Been Elved!

2008-12-21T18:45:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

A good kid, and he plays over Xbox Live!

2008-12-16T11:56:00.000-08:00

If you are someone who does not like to hear parents brag about how great their kids are, you will want to skip this post. Our oldest son brought home a Citizen of the Month award from his school. During parent-teacher conferences, all his teachers have told us what a nice, friendly kid he is and how they enjoy having him in their classes. Great job son!

I'm not going to put one of those cheesy bumper stickers on my car that say "My child make Citizen of the month at.....". (I like my car the way it is with just my Transformer Autobot decal) But if I did, I would also need one like this:

yep, he even owns me at most games. (the ones I let him play....hee hee hee ;-)

Prince of Persia

2008-12-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

There have been so many new releases the past three months and at $60 a game, I can't keep up with what I want to play. So this year for Christmas, my wife gave me the gift that keeps of giving. A Gamefly membership. WOOT! I loaded up my game Q and the new Prince of Persia was at the top of the list. BAM! Saturday afternoon it was sitting in my mailbox.

The only other Prince of Persia I have played through was The Sands Of Time. I loved the storybook feel and how the character could climb, jump, wall run, anywhere. I generally hate platforming, but this game was fun.

I'm only into the new game about an hour, but so far I like it as much as SoT. I have gotten some good laughs from the dialogue between the two main characters, and it is adding to the storybook feel that I am hoping for. The personality of the prince is a carbon copy of George from Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon.

I don't know how to describe the graphics. Not cartoony, but maybe comic booky with a lot of detail?

My wife was watching me play and made a comment comparing the prince's abs with mine. I noticed that Elika's (the prince's female companion) um... features were not nearly as large as females on most other video games. The artists for this game must have been women. lol.

The Doctor is in

2008-12-07T17:18:00.000-08:00

Despite my poor English grades all throughout school, I've always enjoyed writing. If you already know me personally, you know that I'm usually quiet and don't say much. I have always felt more comfortable communicating through writing. So I thought, Why not start a blog? Everyone else seems to be doing so these days.
Hmmm......but what to write about? (quoting the the new Dodge Charger commercial) "you're 'bout to find out!"