Music is Overpriced

OK I'm probably going to sound like a broken record cuz everyone complains about the price of music, but I'm going to complain anyway. Yesterday Jen and I took the kids to the mall, they had a stage set up so people could play Guitar Hero, it was kind of cool because they had monitors spread out on the floor so it looked like an actual band jamming and anyone could jump up and play. We stopped to watch and they were playing You Give Love a Bad Name from Bon Jovi. Being one of my favorite bands I went out and bought Guitar Hero 5 pretty much just for that song (and you get Guitar Hero Van Halen fro free when it's released later this year which I'm can't wait for).

So when I got home from the mall I had the 80's kick and I started searching my old CD's for 80's music to import to iTunes. Well I could've sworn I had all the Bon Jovi CD's but I must have never upgraded my tapes so I was tempted to buy them on iTunes. All their old albums (self titled, 7800 Fahrenheit, Slippery When Wet, and New Jersey) were priced at $8-$10. That's crazy. They're the same price as newly released albums. If they were $5 I would've probably bought their first four Albums. But I'm not paying $10 for them. The recording industry is missing the boat here, if they sold music for half price after 10 years they'd probably sell a lot more. Using Guitar Hero 5 as an example, I can understand Slippery When Wet costing $10 since demand is probably going to go up a bit but their older CD's which sold next to nothing, come on it's not the same value and therefor it should be half the price. But whatever I guess. If I had a Zune Pass I guess I could just download them all...

The Big 35

I'm creeping ever closer to, well, I won't say. But the world just spun around another 365 times making me 35 years old. How did I spend my birthday, I worked, and watched the kids while Jen worked. In all it was fun as the kids are a blast to hang out with. They keep me feeling like I'm 25 still. Oh I forgot to mention that I also farmed today on Farmville. I'm hooked on it. Hayley helped out after the twins went to bed and she's about ready to fall asleep in the chair so I better get her to bed.

Here's a video of the kids in a tire swing.

The Cozy Coupe

Elliott and Braxtyn got a new toy.

The 4th

The 4th was a blast this year. We went to my sister's cabin for the annual event. Our twins are old enough to run around and play and they didn't need to be held all the time. We got to take the twins out in my sister's pontoon, they seemed to enjoy it for the most part other than having a huge life vest on them. And one of them got to wear Hayley's old pink life vest. Oh well, we weren't going to buy another life vest for a boy since they will probably only wear it a couple times.

Family photo with my brothers, sisters and my dad and step mom.

On Sunday we headed to Jens parents. Jen took the kids to a parade while I went for a run. She forgot the sun screen and the kids got a little sun burnt. Hayley is 3.5 years old and she never got sun burn until now. Next time we take the kids somewhere we'll remember the sun screen. During the afternoon we took the kids for a swim in Jens mom's pool. It was pretty fun but the kids were all pretty tired so they didn't last that long.

The Taste of Minnesota

Jen and I took the kids to the Taste of Minnesota today. We were really nervous about it at first because the kids were pretty fussy all day. We planned on going with another couple and their kid but our plans were thrown off when our sewer backed up. We called Minnegasco and they told us they could be at our house between 5-10. So we canceled and waited. The guy showed up about 15 minutes later. He had it unclogged in about an hour and we decided to head out then. We didn't really know where to go and the roads we planned on taking were blocked off. So we kind of drove around looking for parking and we ended up parking at some house for $5. That was nice since most parking was $10 or more. The kids ended up being really good. I thought the State Fair is way better as far as food goes, but we ended up using most of our tickets on rides for Hayley anyway so it wasn't that big of a deal. When it came time to watch the fireworks we found a front row spot. We got there about an hour early and the kids ended up finding other kids to play with so time went really fast. The fireworks were awesome. I think that's the best place to watch them as they shoot them off across the river.

At the park

Video taken, edited, and uploaded to You Tube from my iPhone.

There's an app for that: iMapMyRun

Since I started training for the Urban Wildlife Half marathon this August I've been using the web site map my run to track my progress. Basically you trace the route you ran on (you can enter walks and bike rides as well), time, and some other metrics that you want to track. It'll also track how many miles you've run in your shoes so you know when to replace them. When you trace the route it gives you mile markets and total distance as well. Although this is nice it's tough to exactly trace your route. And sometimes I just forget to enter my run as well.

Since I got the new iPhone with GPS I downloaded iMapMyRun. It use the GPS function on the iPhone to automatically trace my route that I'm running along with average pace per mile and current pace per mile. This is nice for tracking your goals as it gives you instant feedback. There's no more trying to guess your speed. When I finished my workout I upload it to the web site and it automatically draws my route. That is awesome.

Anyway, if you're interested in a web site to track your progress give a try. Here's the link to my workouts.