Travis, Emilie, Ethan, Kallie and I camped out at Wal-Mart for the Halo 3 launch. We went by the store a few times in the evening to assess the line, and people started lining up as early as 7 p.m. I had checked previously with the store on the inventory -- and was told they had over 100 units in stock -- so we spent most of the evening at home hanging out. We caught the first episode of the new season of "Heroes."

We joined the line at 10:30 p.m. and played our Nintendo DS. Four of us chipped in and bought Namco Museum because it includes "Pac-Man vs." When we got tired of playing that, we downloaded a few games from the Wal-Marts DS download station: Picross, Cake Mania, and Custom Robo Arena.

At 12:01 a.m., all of the participants that were issued dog tags (the first 20 in line) were allowed to buy Halo 3 first! Once we secured the game, we went back to my place to "Finish the Fight"! We borrowed Dad's projector to display the game in my office, and the others used the TV in the living room and we started up a four-player co-op game. We drank some Red Bull and powered through the first mission and then played a little bit of slayer on "Last Resort" (the Zanzibar remake) before calling it a night.

A FuzzyCouch breakfast has been scheduled for 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 8.

The Jacksonville Journal-Courier posted a video report previewing Jacksonville's Downtown Gallery Hop. [link]

Last weekend, Scott and Aby flew in from Orlando to spend Labor Day weekend with us!

On Sunday we rose at the crack of dawn to begin our trip to Chicago. We listened to XM Radio classic rock on the way (Journey on our journey) and we didn't hit any traffic! We had heard to expect up to an hour delay from the holiday traffic and construction in the area, but we made it to Christopher and Toni's hotel by 9:30 a.m. We were able to spend a nice time visiting, drinking Jamba Juice for breakfast, eating at Portillo's for lunch, and then we had to see Toni and Christopher on their way back to Des Moines. The rest of use hopped on the L, pink line, and went to the Sears Tower.

We spent an hour in line and watching a short 15 minute "History Channel presents Modern Marvels: Landmarks" on the construction of the Sears Tower. Eventually we were on the observation deck on the 103rd floor gazing out toward lake Michigan. It was really neat; I had never done that before.

We slept in on Monday, then we went over to my parents place at lunch time. After we ate all kinds of cookout fixings, we played badminton while others played croquet. We teamed girls vs boys, and the girls won via their strategic choice of playing field ... they guaranteed the sun in our eyes for all of the highly lobbed shuttlecocks. After visiting a while longer, we decided to go see the "sites" of Lincoln .. and 30 minutes later we were back (he he).

We had a great time and miss everyone again already!

Friday, David took Jantina and I out to eat in Clinton at Ted's Garage [link]. It is a '50s diner stylized after a car garage with similarly themed menu items. I had the "Chopper" which was a bacon-wrapped pork chop with a side of sweet potato fries. Jantina and I agree that it is the best food we've had out since we've been back to the area.

After dinner, we drove down U.S. 51 to Forsyth in search of a Barnes & Noble. To our surprise there is neither a Borders nor Barnes & Noble in Forsyth, though the staff at Starbucks told us there was rumor of one coming in soon. We browsed at Best Buy while Jantina picked up more treats for Sassy at the PetSmart next door before going home.

Saturday, we spent the morning at Tillman's parents' place visiting with Matt, Jenna, the parents and Matt's friends that were down from Chicago. We had a blast hanging out around the pool. The weather was gorgeous.

Around 3 p.m., we drove to Bloomington to pick-up Aby and Scott, who flew in from Orlando to spend the the rest of the weekend with us!