January 30, 2010

Now THIS is winter!! Yet another major snow event, the third this winter. Last I measured we had 9 inches and it is still coming down. I'm going to make it a point to do some sledding this time around. Joe did decide to have me come pick him up pre-snowfall. It is a good thing I did because it does look like it could be a while before anyone goes anywhere. I am very grateful we are not in the position of having to go anywhere and go just sit back and enjoy the beautiful snow day.

One of the things that has been entertaining us during these cold, snowy days cooped up in the cabin is Pac Man (or rather "Pac the Man", the Mac version). During our December visit to Va Beach to visit Joe's family, Joe rediscovered an old Pac Man passion. His uncle has an actual arcade version, and Joe talked about it for days afterwards. A quick internet search confirmed my suspicion that there was likely to be at least one free Pac Man download out there. In order to give it to Joe as a Christmas present, I downloaded it on to our computer, burned it onto a disk, deleted the file off the computer and wrapped the disk. Somehow just telling him to turn on the computer and look in the Applications folder didn't seem festive enough.
Such a simple gift, but a month later, the novelty has yet to wear off. Occasionally I will give it a try, but I find it makes me very tense. Besides, there's only so many times you can get eaten in Level 1, with the difficulty set to "Easy", before your self esteem starts to take a hit. Once or twice we've tried the two player version, where Pac Man and Mrs. Pac Man simultaneously go about devouring dots and avoiding ghosts, but I never seem to be able to keep track of whether I'm the Mr. or the Mrs. Even with Joe watching my back and luring the ghosts away when I'm in a tight spot, I still never make it very far. I've given up any dreams of Pac Man stardom and decided instead that it is much more fun to calmly sip a cup of tea while watching Joe play. Hey, someone has to fill the role of Pac Man groupie.

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