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I am saddened to say that I was almost beat by a 3 year old at Wii Sports bowling. I must have been having an off night, because the alternative of Drake being that good is just horrible to think about. I really thought that it would take much longer for the kid to become as good as the parent.

My score of 155 is low for me. Just last week I bowled a 213, but I average 175-185. Drake’s score of 131 is his highest yet; he bowled a 121 the very next game.

The single most impressive thing about this game happened in the 8th frame. Drake was faced with a 4 – 6 split and managed to pull it off. I would love to say that it was a happy accident, but for all I know he is a master. He managed to hit the 4 just left of center which sent it to the back wall. The pin then shot back forward and took out the 6 pin. My jaw dropped; I couldn’t believe what I just saw.

The first frame of the game was my worst in a long time. With only knocking down 8 pins I almost restarted, and had I been playing with Theresa I probably would have. My skill points drop from this single game was heartbreaking.

Overall Drake played a great game getting 2 strikes and picking up 3 spares. He gets so excited with he gets a strike or spare, jumping up and and down shouting “I did it!”

This all started when I wanted to move things around in our media cabinet under our television. The idea was to remove the CD changer, add the Retro Duo and Nintendo 64, and make some room for my son’s books. At the same time I consolidated the cables running to the TV. I had everything moved and hooked up how I wanted it, except for the Slingbox. I left that unplugged because I wanted to get the remote updated as the day was getting late.

I started up the Harmony software and changed all of the settings that I needed to change. The wireless extender updated no problem, the RF receiver that repeats IR signals. The 890 remote tried to update, it failed. The software was trying to update the firmware on the remote, which it seemed to complete, but then it wouldn’t update the settings. I did some looking around in the Logitech forums and found out how to put the remote into safe mode. I tried again.

While in sleep mode it indicated that the firmware still needed updated. The remote again looked liked the firmware was updated, however it still would not complete the update fully. I even tried the suggestion of creating a new online account for the remote. I added just two devices and one activity, it still wouldn’t update. After some more frustrating attempts to update the remote I gave up. I was not sure where I would get with Logitech phone support because they have a new policy for Harmony remotes that limit phone support to 60 days after purchase, which was not the policy when I purchased the remote.

I called and used the new online account to make reference to my remote. I was able to talk to someone there. He did keep asking me when I purchased the remote, but I have to admit that I lied. I told him that I got the remote as a gift and didn’t know when it was originally purchased. I know, I lied in order to get phone support. I spent some time on the phone and had to try just about everything I had already tried. Nothing work and I was asked to contact the warranty center.

At this point I had no expectations of getting anywhere. I figured I could give it a shot and see what comes of it, since I knew the remote was out of warranty. I called the warranty center and informed the woman on the other end of the phone what was going on. She confirmed that the phone support sent me in this direction. I gave her my case number and the serial number from the remote. The next few sentences out of her mouth truly surprised me. I was informed that yes the remote was out of warranty, however they would be able to do a one time full replacement of the remote. After confirming some information she thanked me for calling Logitech. A few minutes later I got an email that included the particulars and letting me know that I would be receiving a new remote in 7-10 business days.

Now that the whole remote situation was taken care of I focused my attention to the Slingbox. I plugged in the A/V cables, ran the IR blasters to the TiVo, on a side note I want the IR kit for my Vudu box, and then went to plug it into the Slingbox. There was no resistance. I tried again, but there was no plug there. I grabbed a flashlight and confirmed that the plug for the IR blasters was missing. After I picked the box up I fount the plug, it had come off the board and was freely rolling around inside the case.

This gadget was also out of warranty and I knew it. I jumped right on the phone with Sling Media support. They offered to swap out the unit for a fee. At this point I was just exhausted from things failing. I agreed and pulled out my debit card.

A few days later both of my replacements arrived and are in perfect working order. Logitech sent a fully new retail box with all of the extras and accessories. They also asked me to dispose of the broken remote properly as they do not want it back. Sling Media sent a refurbished Slingbox Pro, just the box in some bubble wrap, with a return shipping label. I hooked the Slingbox up and it is working just fine. Now I just have to drop off the broken unit to UPS.

In the end I am glad that everything is working well.

This is where Think Geek came to the rescue. It arrived on Friday via UPS and was opened within minutes. After spending just seconds hooking it up I was off to the races with Paperboy!

The SNES portion worked great! Now it was time to check on the NES slot.

No, I am not getting up really early to go shopping.

I also got a new desk for my office. Carrie wanted her desk back that I was using and this one was abandoned on the loading dock. There is more surface area, and bigger drawers. I even got a new filing cabinet. With a larger desk and a smaller office is sure does look like I have less space. I don’t mind this because now I do not have all of the large files or the sales persons paperwork racks in my office.

Theresa and Drake brought me some picture frames so I can print some photos and hang them up. I should do that next week. Carrie also gave me a few photos that she took back in April of 2007. Drake is crawling on my desk, he’s so darn cute.

Last night Theresa and I watched Get Smart last night. I rented it from the Redbox in our local Walmart. This was my first Redbox rental and everything seems to have gone very well. I still have to take it back today to avoid getting charged for a second day. The first day was free with a promo code that I had. As far as the actual movie goes… I’m glad it was free. The movie was funny, but there was just something about it that didn’t click for me.

Backtracking through the last week brings me to Sunday. I didn’t do anything. I was in my pajamas all day long. I watched TV and played Nintendo and PS3 all day. Theresa’s parents came over for a visit in the evening. We backed a take and bake cheese pizza from Costco. The pizza was impressive.

Saturday morning I watched TV and played video games. I didn’t have Drake because he had spent the night with Grandma and Grandpa Klein. After we picked him up and got home I baked a pizza and ended up watching the Red Wings game.

Moving farther back, in the week brings me to days that I cannot remember what we did. I’m so bad at that. I even forgot to take the trash out this morning. Oops.

Last night Brooke and Rob came for a visit. We started by playing Tetris Party on the Nintendo Wii. We ordered some pizza because Brooke came with a coupon. Once the pizza was dropped off we stopped playing in order to eat and watch the Red Wings beat up the New Jersey Devils. The Wings played well and Marián Hossa is really getting into his role with the team. After the game we turned the Wii back on to play some more Tetris. We are very competitive, and Theresa was yelling at me for things that were not my fault. I had also opened the wrong bottle of pop. Yeah, I’m such a bad brother.

November 9, Detroit Free Press: The Wings fought and scored in the first period. Darren McCarty tussled with David Clarkson some 2 minutes into the game, though for much of their minutes-long battle neither was able to get his arms free to throw a really good punch. McCarty ended up landing a handful, and the scuffle got a standing ovation from the fans.

“That one presented itself early and got the fans into it, and it’s always nice when you’re in the box and your team scores,” McCarty said. “Then you feel like you got an assist in some sort of way.”

On Friday Theresa and I took Drake out to do a little Trick-or-Treating. We ended up going to some family houses for his first real Halloween. He was so cute and adorable. He wouldn’t say ‘Trick-or-Treat,’ but he did say ‘Please?’ at every house. He was also real good with saying ‘Thank You’ to everyone.

Saturday night the Grand Rapids Griffins suffered their first regulation loss against the Milwaukee Admirals. Drake spent most of the game on my lap leaning back and just watching the game. I’m not sure what was up, but it took him until about half way through the third period before he started applauding and really reacting to the game.

The game started real bad for Daniel Larsson. He only stopped 3 shots out of the 7 he faced. Which did get him replaced by Jimmy Howard. After the 5th Admiral goal I don’t think Larsson even needed to look at the bench to see that Curt Fraser was taking him out. The good news is that the Griffins were able to get four of those five back, but just couldn’t get it done in the last moments of the game.

November 1, Griffinshockey.com: Tom Galvin’s first goal of the campaign gave the Griffins a short-lived lead during a 4-on-4 only 2:15 into the contest. Backpedaling with the puck above the left circle, he found the top of [Drew] MacIntyre’s net with a seeing-eye wrister. [Read More]

Curt Fraser made this comment to the Grand Rapids Press:

November 2, Grand Rapids Press: “There’s nobody in the building that feels worse than him,” Fraser said. “He’s a proud kid, and takes a lot of pride in what he’s built up and accomplished over in Sweden, being the best goaltender there. To have something like this happen is totally out of character. But all of us make mistakes, and he made a few tonight, but his teammates tried to take care of him.”

Sunday was a nice relaxing day at home. Drake and I got some serious play time in. In the afternoon I noticed that Tetris Party was out and available. I went to download it and first needed to buy more Wii Points. I then needed to make room on my Wii. Once it was down and installed Theresa and I had quite a fun time playing around with it. I foresee many hours of Tetris playing in my future. I think yesterday the Wii logged us at about 3 hours of Tetris playing.

joystiq.com got a hands on with the new Tetris Party for the Wii!

Nintendo claims there are 18 modes, 10 of which are new, but we only agree technically; the company counts some modes twice as single- and multi-player games. (Most modes support up to four players on one system, and a few work with up to six online.) We tore into as many as we could before overloading like a kid on a Halloween sugar-high. Here’s how they stand up.

The best part? It’s supposed to be out this month! Anyone want to buy me some Wii Points!

More: tetrisparty.com Oh, and tetris.com has the best background music ever!