Whoopsie-doodle

I totally forgot about writing blog posts for a couple of days there... I'm actually kinda surprised - but not that much really.  First off, Saturday was a big day in that we went out shopping.  The whole family.  Does not happen much, so it stood out.  My wife needed to get another Wii Balance Board because our original one stopped work.  I think it may have died of loneliness, but that's just a suspicion.  It was weird because it hadn't been used for some time and then it ceased to work.  So we had to get that, and I had to get some drum pad silencers for my Rock Band drums after Friday's Rock Band at my sister's.  Next we went to Best Buy and I got Rock Band 2, after convincing myself that it would work with the Rock Band instruments.  Then the whole family got inline skates.  

I'd had a look at some inline skates a few weekends back, as my wife has a growing interest in skating.  I thought would be nice for everyone to get them so we could go out all together.  Plus I never owned any and it looks like fun.  Apparently I shouldn't go out when it is even a little damp as that gums up the bearings.  So far, that isn't an issue as I haven't even attempted to go about yet.  I got some hockey inline skates, ending up with Nike Bauer's because the toe box for the Mission's are way too narrow.  The Bauer's have a huge square thing, matching my need for a small skate but with adult toes.  Or something to that effect.

Anyway, we headed home and I had to try out Rock Band 2 to see if I'd wasted my money or what.  Turns out that no, I had not.  I proceed to play for the next 4 hours or so, with my oldest son joining me on guitar.  It was an excellent time.  The Rock Band 2 port for the Wii brings it more in line with what is done on the Xbox 360 and PS3 with customizable  characters, online play and downloadable content.   Needless to say, I was quite pleased.  And then there was Sunday morning...

Sunday morning dawned and we had some time where we could play Rock Band until it was time to go for the family lunch at my aunt's.  We went for lunch and got back around 5:30pm.  My eldest son and I sat down, picked a set of 3 songs to do and off we went.  I broke the bass pedal on the third note.  Because I'd been given one of the older Rock Band original pedals, this one didn't crack or weaken - it snapped cleanly in the exact spot my original weakened.  It was pretty tough, but I played for a couple more hours.  The pedal worked if you weren't too energetic and held your foot in the right place.

This brings us to today.  I needed to get a better replacement for the pedal, so I started calling around to some of the gaming stores.  I found what I wanted at one and got them to hold it for me.  Seems the Rock Band 2 pedal has a metal reinforcing plate and otherwise is the same.  Well, that's what I wanted, give the way the first two pedals were damaged.  And only $25 to boot!  I picked that up and a second guitar so that we could get a full four-person band going.  Rushed home and I was able to put the new pedal to the test.  It worked really well for me - the metal plate made things really solid and movement easier.  It makes less noise because it is more solid - the spring doesn't bend funny when you move it faster.  The other neat thing is that this pedal came with a double-bass aggregator, which allows you to plug two pedals into the drum kit.  Don't really need that yet, but the possibility is now there for me.