Dancing Queen

So a week or so ago we got a new video game, Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii.  This is really hard.  Mira's already better at it than I am.

Basically you have this mat on the floor with arrows pointing this way and that and you have to try to keep up with whatever the assigned moves are on screen.  It's tiring and complicated and fast, so if you're both tired and uncoordinated it's a lost cause.  But it's good fun.

Kris has started a drawing class on Monday evenings and it sounds like it's going to be pretty cool.  Today Mira starts her Saturday art classes again.  

Treasure Hunt

I forgot to talk about this -- 2 weekends ago we went hunting for 4 letter-boxes hidden in the woods of Battle Creek.  There is this sort of nationwide 'treasure hunt' that's been in place for several years -- check it out at http://www.letterboxing.org/ - people have hidden these little stamp-books in obscure places, clues are posted online and you go find them (hidden in obscure out-of-the way places, under a rock, in the base of a tree, etc.) -- you then take them out of the box, stamp your own little book with the stamp that's inside, and stamp the book in the box with your own identifying stamp (sort of an "I was here" thing) -- it's great family fun and doesn't cost anything, but it can be exhausting and we did kill most of a day hiking all over the woods looking for 4 of these things, but we did find them -- it's fun to flip through and read the stamps and messages from all the people who have found it over the last 3 years.  But some of the boxes are a bit broken and have soggy pages or rusty spiral-binding -- but it's cool.

The God Almighty Dollar

So naturally all the talk at work has been about the money crisis.  The opinions even at the bank are all over the place -- most of us see the problem as 'real' enough but it's debatable whether the bailout is the right solution (or will even work).  I figured they needed to do something, but honestly I do have a lot of mixed feelings about it -- and at this stage it may be somewhat moot.

For anyone asking, our bank is in real good shape so don't worry about us -- we're not into subprime or really funky consumer loans or what have you.