Undead Nightmare October 27, 2010

The new Undead Nightmare DLC was released yesterday. I downloaded it last night. It was nearly 2GB of data, so it took awhile. Since it was late, like 11pm, I debated whether or not it would be too scary for me to play it. I don’t like scary games, movies or anything else that has to do with zombies, ghosts, monsters, etc. I got the DLC because I love RDR and if the DLC is too scary for me, I won’t play it and it will be $10 down the drain.

I looked at my friends list on the PS3 and saw that T was playing, so I messaged him and asked if the game is scary. He messaged back and said there are a lot of zombies, so I may want to wait until daylight to play it. Great. So here I have a new DLC and have to wait until tomorrow to play. After a few minutes of debate, I decided to woman up and play the darn thing.

I inserted the RDR disc in the PS3 and selected Undead Nightmare.

Zombie Cougar

The game loaded, the music started, then the Vincent Price like voice started talking. Uh oh. Should I have waited? Naw. I watched the entire intro. While John was driving the wagon to his ranch, a zombie cougar was shown running behind the wagon. Okay, so that didn’t look too scary.

The next zombie scene came while John, Abigail and Jack was in the living room. Thunder, lightning and then a nasty looking hand goes up to the window. Still not too scary.

I continued playing for awhile. The first up close and personal zombie that shows up is Uncle. He comes busting through John & Abigail’s bedroom door looking very bad and making weird noises. John hits him over the head with a lamp and down goes Uncle. Really? That seemed awfully easy to defeat a zombie.

Uncle getting ready to bite Abigail

John runs out to the barn to get his rifle. Why is he keeping his weapon in the barn? A lot of good that does when an intruder is in your house. Next scene shows Abigail running out of the house with Uncle right on her heels. She falls down outside and Uncle bites her. Uh oh. John yells at him and then I finally was able to take control of John. A pop up intructs you to kill Uncle. So one shot with the rifle and Uncle’s head is blown clean off his body. What?! Uncle is still alive near the end of the main story. How could he die now? Undead Nightmare takes place a few months after John and his family are reunited and before he fights the Army with Uncle, right?

Uncle has no head

Anyway, Jack comes running out of the house to a scene he can’t believe he’s seeing. He runs over to his mother and what does she do? She bites him! John runs to the barn again and gets a lasso. You get control of John again and a pop up instructs you to lasso and hogtie Abigail and Jack. A cut scene shows him putting them in the bedroom and bringing them food. Abigail gets a nice big juicy T-bone steak while it looks like Jacks gets grilled cheese sandwiches. I don’t know what’s on the plate, but that’s what it looks like to me.

Once that is done, John rides off to Blackwater to find a doctor. He find Professor MacDougal instead. Things don’t end well for him, poor guy. After that you are instructed to find survivors. You do find a few and then you have to save the town by helping the survivors kill all the undead. Ammo is a hot commodity and hard to come by. Searching the corpses of the undead and opening the chests provides you with ammo. Doing deeds for people gets you ammo too.

I found even with all the zombies on the screen, it didn’t scare me at all. I can play this game without having nightmares. Woo Hoo!

Live RDR Scenes October 25, 2010

Last month I took a trip to Alaska. Yeah, I know I haven’t posted any pics yet. I am very far behind on posting. Summer is just really busy and then at night I don’t feel like typing.

Anyway, while viewing the pictures I took, some of them reminded me of scenes in RDR. What do you think? 

This lake scene reminded me of Lake Don Julio.

Tunnel similiar to the one in Hennigan's Stead

A bridge very similiar to the bridges in the game

 

Could be going through Tall Trees

Yes, this is a real outhouse. You see these at homesteads in the game.

The picture of the outhouse was taken at one of my friends house. She lives in a valley surrounded by mountains on 350 acres of land. The original house was torn down and a new one built, but the outhouse stayed. The hole is filled in so it’s just the structure of the outhouse. It’s a 2 seater.

Two seater outhouse

Storing the Boat October 25, 2010

Today is a sad day for me. I’ll be pulling the boat out of the water this afternoon to winterize it and then put it in the warehouse for winter storage. Over the weekend, we packed everything out of it, emptied the holding tanks and pumped out the waste tank. After today, I won’t see her until May. Yep, very sad day.

Turn on the Heat September 27, 2010

It’s only September 27 and I turned on my furnace this morning. It’s cold! As I’m writing this it is 55 degrees outside and of course it was colder this morning. Are we going to have another year where summer ends, Fall lasts one week and then we go right into winter? I hope not. Unfortunately, the leaves are so dry from lack of rain, they’re mostly brown and already falling from the trees. I doubt we have a colorful Fall in this area.

Back in Seattle September 19, 2010

Well, our cruise is over. We arrived in Seattle at 7am yesterday. I didn’t keep up the daily blog of our time on the ship because I wasn’t going to pay 35 cents a minute to be on the internet.

The cruise was absolutely wonderful! The weather was perfect every single day; cool but sunny with blue, blue skies. Everyone, both crew and locals in each port, kept telling us how lucky we were. They have never had an entire cruise with such beautiful weather. We were very fortunate and I thank God for that.

I took a lot of pictures and video. When I get back home, I’ll post some of them on here. Had I brought my USB cable I’d post them now while at the hotel, but I didn’t know they had PC’s for public use. I’ll also comment on our excursions and the ship.

Yesterday we took a taxi from the cruise terminal to the hotel. Since it was only 9:30am, we couldn’t check in. The desk clerk opened the storage room so we could keep them in there so we could go sightseeing and not worry about dragging luggage everywhere with us. Before we hit the road, we sat in the lobby for about an hour just to relax. I asked the desk clerk about the buses that are free within the downtown city limits and where a good restaurant is to eat lunch. The bus stop isn’t far from our hotel and he gave me the names of 4 restaurants that are near the waterfront or Pike Place Market.

I’ll have to make this post a 2 parter because it’s time to go sightseeing. This is our last day in Seattle and tomorrow morning we’re heading home. I can’t wait.

Seattle September 11, 2010

We arrived in Seattle earlier than scheduled. Our bags were already going around the carousel when we got to baggage claim, which was really nice. Our next mission was to find the STITA taxi vans located in the parking garage on the 3rd floor. 

carol-sarah-chris-roman-barb

Dragging all that luggage was cumbersome, we have 4 bags; 2 large ones and two small ones plus the camera bag and a backpack. 

Luckily, a representative from the taxi company was right there and he radioed for a van. It was there within a minute. We piled in and relaxed. Well, kind of. The driver was falling asleep at the wheel. I was sitting in the back so I told Barb to tell Chris, who was sitting in the front with the driver, to start talking to him to keep him awake. 

We arrived at our hotel safely. The cost was $41.75, which was very close to the $45 they quoted me over the phone, so I was happy. I was surprised we were able to check in so early. We got our room assignments right next to each other. Chris took all our luggage up. After all, like Barb said, we only brought him along as the baggage boy. For those of you who don’t know them, Chris is Barb’s son. 

Pike Place Market

The temperature was 56 degrees and cloudy. Not a blue patch in the sky at all. At least it wasn’t raining. All of us were hungry so we walked to Seattle Center to the Food Court. I had fish & chips, everyone else had burgers. Then we went up the Space Needle. Of course as soon as the elevator took us up, a photographer asked if we wanted a photo taken. Why not? It was free. Yolanda & Jennifer didn’t get in the picture with us. Neither one of them really like getting their picture taken. They don’t even take a camera with them on vacation! 

The view from the top of the Needle were really nice, even though it wasn’t a sunny day. I was hoping that our cruise ship would be in port so I could get a picture of it, but it wasn’t there. I guess we spent about an hour at the top, especially since it cost $17 per person. 

After we left there, we took the monorail to Westlake and walked to Pike Place Market. It was quite crowded. The first thing we saw was Rachel the Pig, a bronze statue at the entrance to the market. The next thing was the smell of fish because the famous fish throwing booth was right there. I wasn’t impressed. They didn’t really throw fish very much. Mostly bags of pieces of fish and once in awhile a whole fish. 

Crabs at Pike's Place Market

The market itself was really cool. What I was most impressed with was the fresh fruits and vegetables and the vibrant, fresh flowers being sold. I’ve never seen anything like them. As soon as I can post a picture I will. And they weren’t expensive either. $5 would get you a beautiful bouquet of fresh, bright flowers. I’d buy them every week if I lived here. 

We saw so many nice places to eat, we wished we had eaten there. We certainly will when we return. We took the monorail back to Seattle Center and walked back to the hotel. About a 15 minute walk. Back in our rooms we laid down. Big mistake. We were all exhausted and almost decided not to go eat dinner. But at 7pm we talked ourselves into getting up and going because it was way too early to sleep, even though it was 10pm our time. 

We walked to Whole Foods because the hotel staff told us there is a good Italian restaurant above the store. It was packed and a 30 minute wait, so we put our name in and went down to Whole Foods. I’ve never been in one and was I ever amazed! So many fresh food buffets, olive bar, salad bar, fried chicken, vegetables, and all kinds of other stuff was available. We decided to get something to eat there. The pizza looked fresh and delicious, so that’s what most of us got. Jennifer & Yolanda got Thai. It was certainly cheaper eating there than at the restaurant and the food was delicious. I’d be happy to eat there every night, but of course we have to experience a good seafood restaurant when we get back from our cruise. Unless of course I’ve had my fill of seafood by then. 

So we were in bed by 8:30pm local time. I woke up this morning at 4:25am local time. I hope I get on schedule within the next couple of days. 

Now it’s off to pack up what we took out last night and get ready to go check in at the pier. Roman is very excited to get on the ship. He’s ready to eat crab legs.

Seattle Bound September 10, 2010

We’re on the plane bound for Seattle. Its a beautiful day at 34000 feet. So far everything has gone smoothly.

The van that I reserved arrived at the house 10 minutes early which is good because it took awhile to load the luggage. It was a nice van; very large and comfortable. The driver was the owner of the company and her name was Karen. She has 6 town cars and a couple vans. She was very personable and stylish.

We had Chick-fil-A for breakfast. I never thought in a million years I’d eat chicken for breakfast but it wasn’t bad.

We are due to arrive in Seattle at 11:13am. We’ll check into the hotel and then go eat lunch.

Later!

Alaska Bound September 9, 2010

We’re heading off for a 7 day Alaskan cruise. We’ll spend the night in Seattle and then get on the ship Saturday afternoon. I can’t wait! We’re taking Norwegian Cruise Line’s Sawyer Glacier Cruise, stopping in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway & Prince Rupert.

If I have cell phone service, I’ll be posting photos and writing a few lines. Otherwise, I’ll have to write about it when I get back.

There are 7 of us going so it should be a lot of fun. Heck, even if it were just me going, I’d still have a lot of fun.

Bon Voyage!!

Bunnies and other Creatures September 8, 2010

This summer we saw quite a bit of wildlife around the house. It started with this bunny that I would guess is in it’s equivalent of teen years. It lives underneath our neighbors porch. I saw it everyday for a couple weeks, then never saw it again. 

A few days later, I saw an adult rabbit sitting in the middle of the yard. To me, she looked like she was feeding. So after she disappeared from sight, I went outside and checked. Sure enough, there was a small hole in the ground, but I couldn’t see anything because the left a layer of her fur on top of the hole. I wasn’t going to disturb it.  

I checked the hole once in awhile, then 5 days later there was no fur covering the hole and I saw the cutest little baby bunny peeking out at me! Oh my gosh it was so cute!  

Now while all this was going on, I noticed a nice sized hole leading under our porch. I kinda knew that mama bunny had been busy making this hole to move the babies into a larger space at some point. Sure enough, the next day after I took a picture of the peeking bunny, I saw them go underneath our porch. Not only do the bunnies live there, but a chipmunk does too. He came out one day, jumped up on the porch and started chirping at me. He’s been around for a few years and I’ve named him Chippy. Yeah, creative I know. 

When I took the pictures of mama and babies together, I was surprised she didn’t move and they continued feeding. I took a lot of pictures, but I only have so much space on here to post them. 

The red circle shows where the bunny hole is.

 

 

Three days after I took the above pictures, one of the bunnies was out on its own. 

 After enjoying watching the bunnies for a couple weeks, I never saw them again. I assume they all moved on to their own rabbit holes. I really missed them for a few days. But then one day, I saw this rabbit, which, to me, looked like one of the baby bunnies all grown up. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a racoon in the yard. It wasn’t very big and it was quite entertaining watching it trying to get into the bird feeder.  

Legends and Killers Pack August 10, 2010

I downloaded the new Legends and Killers Pack DLC for Red Dead Redemption today from the Playstation Store. For $9.99 you get 9 new Gang Matches and Free For All locations, 8 characters from the game Red Dead Revolver, a new throwing weapon – the tomahawk, new single & multiplayer challenges and trophies.

I rarely play Gang and Free For All matches (PVP) unless the BPC is playing together. The characters from Red Dead Revolver, well, I didn’t like that game at all, so that was no big deal for me. The tomahawk is cool and I enjoy the new challenges and getting trophies. So why did I buy the DLC if it wasn’t all that interesting to me? Just because. And I was hoping that a few BPC’ers would get it too and we’d play more PVP matches. Hasn’t happened. But it is nice that I can play as Annie Stokes, a female character that dresses sensibly for being a gunslinger.

The DLC that I’m really looking forward to is the Liars and Cheats Pack, which will be available next month sometime. One of the additions will be the multiplayer version of Liars Dice and Poker, as well as horse racing against each other. I’m hoping some folks from the BPC get it so we can play against each other. I don’t know how to play poker, but in the single player version of Liars Dice, I’m pretty good.