=== Games With The Wife To Be ===

     Recently I've been playing games with the wife to be. We've always enjoyed playing board games together and sometimes things like Mario and State of Decay because who doesn't love Mario and zombies? The unfortunate part is that we've always found it quite difficult to find two-player games that we both enjoy. In comes Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance on the Play Station 2. I've known for a while now that Carley has been interested in Dungeons & Dragons, but we just haven't had the time to run an adventure together. So one night I decided to suggest playing a new game and the next thing I know... she's asking to play "just until the next save point."

     Something I learned from this experience is that it's good to ask to try new things with your partner. You may be surprised to find that they enjoy doing some of these new things, or they may in fact be quite interested in something you like which even they never new about! I've also learned to be much more patient with my partner and that I also need to give new things a try... not just her. I've always been set in my ways where I like to do the same sort of thing every time; I even tend to order the same thing at each restaurant I go to. Now I'm trying to do things that are a little bit out of my comfort zone. We started spending time outside together recently building a snow fort! But that's a story for another time.

     So now we're looking for a new two-player game to play because we've beaten Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and I don't have the second game currently. Amazingly there don't seem to be a lot of great games like this on consoles these days. I'm sure if we keep looking we'll find something somewhere... or maybe I'll just finally get her to join me in playing some games on the PC. ;)

     I've always been a PC person because I enjoy the wide breadth of games available and I much prefer the accuracy of a mouse and keyboard vs a controller. I pretty much can't find a comfortable control scheme when using a controller in pretty much any case ever. The worst part about this... is that pretty much everybody I've ever known has been way more into consoles than PC. As unfortunate as that is, I will remain primarily a PC user searching throughout the land for some people of the same mind as myself to join me.

~ Kyle Welykholowa

=== What's The Date Today? ===

     Carley and I went on a date today for the first time in a while. Today I remembered that it's really easy to forget to spend proper time together outside of the house. We tend to get into habits where we watch TV and play games and do the same old things over and over again. Now that's not a bad thing to be happy with what we have and what we do.

     Sometimes we get so busy with me working, Carley taking care of Isabelle, and then trying to spend the rest of our time with friends, that we run out of time to spend doing special things together. So today we finally got a chance to go to a movie together and we had a wonderful time. It was really nice to be able to do something for once rather than just sitting around (though I do really enjoy the regular things we do as well).

     Having dates together is something so easy at first when you start dating somebody. It's so simple to make anything into a date when you don't live together. You actually have to try to plan things out and spend time with each other at someone's house or outside somewhere. A little tip for everybody out there who may be in a relationship or thinking about getting into one: it's way too easy to forget how to spend that special time together once you live together. As simple as it might seem to hang out together in the same room, that's not always good enough. Sometimes you have to go out of your way to do something special for your partner; make breakfast in bed for them, get some flowers, or maybe write a poem.

     So here we are having a great time together after going out to our movie this evening. We decided to finish playing The Walking Dead: The New Frontier tonight so that we can move on to different games. What a wonderful series; but that's of course for another time when I'm reviewing another game.

Have a wonderful night everybody, and don't forget to show your loved ones how much you care.

~ Kyle Welykholowa