The new XBox Media Center is installed on my console… I have it set up to play a playlist on startup, which points to files on my PC (via Samba). All I have to do is press the power button, and voila - music. (I can of course switch to a new playlist if I don’t like the default.) I also purchased a DVD Playback Kit (basically just an IR remote), which Media Center can read. I can turn on my visualizer (G-Force) at the push of a button.

Lenny, by the way, loves Audioslave. He’ll dance to a song, and clap his hands and shout “yaaaaaay” whenever it finishes. He’s also absolutely hypnotized by G-Force (kinda like me). He’s been pretty restless the past few nights with his mom gone, so it’s been helpful in getting him to sleep (with the Audioslave on mute, of course).

I didn’t feel like chasing him around yesterday, so we drove up to Payson (he’s always calm in the car). Saw the Willow forest fire on the way up - it looked harmless enough, with a few helicopters flying in water and cute white puffs of smoke coming off the mountainside. When we stopped in Payson for lunch, I was surprised to see a notice posted in the Wendy’s that they were closing the highway the next day for a “backburn operation” due to the fire.

We drove through Payson and on into the pine-covered mountains (far from the fire); ah, it was gorgeous. I went on for nearly an hour before turning back.

Passed back through Payson, and then the whole landscape was covered in foglike yellow smoke - I came to realize it was from that same “harmless” fire we’d seen that morning. Traffic was still flowing normally, though, and we weren’t coughing at all, so I drove on home.

Arrived safe and sound, let the frantic dog out of the bathroom, and called it a night.