Birthday + GH:WT Release + Halloween = Great Party

Three events came together in the same week: The latest Guitar Hero release, Halloween, and my birthday. So, Cheryl and I did what any sane person would do - we hosted a Rocker/Groupie themed Guitar Hero birthday party.

Guitar Hero World Tour is the latest installment in the Guitar Hero series, and unfortunately for EA most people do not know it has Drums/Vocals in addition to the traditional Bass/Guitar of the rest in the Guitar Hero series - clearly in direct competition with the Rock Band series. It's unfortunate they didn't pull together a name that would have made that more obvious. Even after having it since Thursday I still accidentally call it "Rock Band" myself. I imagine this is partly because the term "Guitar Hero" doesn't connote a full band game, and partly because Rock Band is a more obvious name for a band game etc...

Anyhow, I'll probably write a short review of it later, but ... back to the party.

We had a pretty good turnout, with the primary costume of choice being cowboy/cowgirl rockers. Kelly came as a pretty convincing Pat Benatar:

We had great participation, with sometimes up to three people working the drums. Here Megan's on foot pedal, Mona's on right cymbal, and Evan's driving the rest of the pads:

A Domo somehow made it into the house, and it seemed pretty eager to have some cake:

The first casualty in the game was a drum stick - I suppose I was drumming a bit harder than I should have... It is Rock and Roll though...

Henry and Trang lit up the vocals for a few songs. Henry's had Rock Band for a while, so he was pretty comfortable with Guitar Hero:

Kelly and Mick came down from Vancouver, so it was truly an international rock show:

And Mona created a great poster for the event!

Well, my focus will now shift to my upcoming Tanzania trip since it's only a few more days before I take the long flight over there. There are still a lot of minor logistics to nail down before heading out, so here's hoping we get everything together in time.

Until next time!

Ankle fun

So, it's been over three weeks since my ankle had an encounter with Whistler mountain. The sprain is healed, but the wound hasn't yet scabbed over, and the skin has not yet grown back. This means there's a chance it will still be open when I head to East Africa next weekend. This of course wouldn't be ideal since it's not always easy to get clean water to cleanse the wound. The past few days have seen a lot of improvement, so here's hoping... I've got antibiotics in case anything goes wrong.

During the last three weeks I've seen 3 different doctors who gave 3 different methods for maintaining the wound.

The first was the emerg doctor at Whistler mountain who suggested soaking in salt water, then using Polysporin and then keeping it covered with a tensor.

The second was the doctor on call while my primary doctor was on vacation. I told him what I had been doing, and he said "why the heck would you pour salt in your wounds?", and said that salt water was an old wives' tale. This doctor suggested using hydrogen peroxide, and then Polysporin.

When I had a chance to see my normal doctor I told him what I was doing, and he said "why the heck would you use hydrogen peroxide? You're trying to re-grow skin, and hydrogen peroxide kills all cells including skin cells..." So his suggestion was to clean the wound with mild soap water twice a day, and coat it with silver sulfadiazine which is primarily used on second or third degree burns, but works for regenerating skins on deep abrasions as well.

What struck me most about this is not just the fact that three doctors' methods for treating a relatively common problem could be so different, but more that each successive one thought the other doctors were nuts for prescribing their methods.

Anyhow, although the wound is still open it's looking a lot better than it did even a few days ago, so I hope to see an immense improvement this week. At this point I can walk around with no problems, and although I haven't done too much activity I imagine I should be able to start working out etc... again soon.

Have fun!