a tale of two stickies.
saturday, april 4th, 2026.
Last weekend, Zippi and I celebrated our second wedding anniverary with a nice dinner and evening downtown. Time flies— it feels like just yesterday we were making our way down to the courthouse to tie the knot!
Zippi snagged reservations at a fancy upscale place and, my goodness was it delicious! The atmosphere was great and the music selection was pretty much "oops! all Black Keys." We really enjoyed our entrées and the appetizer they brought out, which was a tray of almost-croissants with a variety of jams to spread on them. The trout on a bed of potatos with remoulade and arugula was divine! They change their menu every week, so who knows what we might get if we return next year? After our quiet dinner together, we made our way through some of the festival crowd and to a barcade where we played pinball and a few other games together. What a way to celebrate our anniversary!
I had such a great time playing Metal Slug with Zippi that night that I wound up ordering a pair of Mayflash F500 Elite joysticks so we could get our arcade gaming on at home. I've got plenty of emulators, so why not?
The joysticks came in the mail quickly and, after swapping out the square-shaped joystick restrictor gates with octagonal ones, we were off to the races. We've played some Streets of Rage and Battle Garegga so far, but I'm looking forward to diving through the ol' emulator catalog for more co-op goodness. There's just so many old games to enjoy and it's been a blast playing a few of 'em. Maybe next up we'll try Double Dragon, Contra, or the Simpsons arcade game— We've got so many to choose from and it's a great way for us to spend time together!
One of my friends also recommended Earthion, a modern Genesis shmup that came out last year. I extracted the ROM and have been playing it on RetroArch and having an absolute blast with it. Changeable Guardian Estique caught my attention last year and it's just so neat that new retro games are getting released for these older consoles. The presentation is fantastic, the gameplay is crisp, and the "new game plus"-style continue system with upgrades melds the retro and modern well.
In other news, Zippi and our friend have been giving our back porch a makeover and it's starting to look awesome! They've painted the walls, are almost done painting the floor, have put disco tiles on the screen door, and strung up some cafe bulbs. I can't wait to hang out here with our friends all the time! Grilling dinner, relaxing under the fan, and just vibing with our friends? Sign me up!
My eldest child just celebrated her eighteenth birthday, which is kinda hard to believe! She's gotten accepted to a state university and will hopefully get a full-ride scholarship to boot. For her birthday, I bought her a fancy-schmancy Dell XPS 13 laptop so that she could have a good computer to do her schoolwork on. If she does get that scholarship and our tax return is kind, I may get her a car as well. Then again— she may not need it quite yet!
Until next time, be well! :)