Oh my oh my oh my. Should have seen Jon's face Christmas morning. I don't know why I didn't have my camera ready, it was sitting right next to me. Gave Jon the Wii, last present under the tree. Now, Jon knew that Evvy and Matt stood in line 14+ hours to get one, he knew there were only 20 Wii's in stock, but what he wasn't told was that they were #3 in line. Jon's jaw almost hit the floor, he was so flabbergasted. He knew that he wasn't going to get one, but there it was! Evan (I think) got him Twilight Princess, Jon had that box setup and running in minutes. Showed us how to golf and bowl and box and how to play baseball and tennis, then loaded up TP and went to work. I think he will wear that TV out before he gets done.
The Wii is a remarkable piece of hardware. A small box about the size of a CDROM drive for a PC, just a little bit bigger, with ports on the back and one side. A small sensor about 1/4" tall, 1" deep and 9" wide that sits under (or on top) of the TV. And, of course, the remote. And it works! I was kinda skeptical at first, but it took just a moment to setup the box, included telling the Wii whether the sensor was above or below the TV set, and away it went. And you can aim the remote at your target and shoot it down, swing it like a bat and hit the ball (it only senses whether your swing is fast or slow, it cannot sense whether you are swinging high or low, darn it.), when you pitch the ball you can put spin on it and throw a curve ball or a slider. When bowling you can put spin on and throw it hard, or you can give it a gentle push down the lane. I wanted to try F-Zero, but Jon says that I need the regular Nintendo controller for that, the Wii controller is not backwards compatible. I was hoping.....
Jon also started giving our family the official announcement yesterday, but I don't know if I'm allowed to post it yet for the world to see.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Saturday December 23, 2006
Well, if it is a white Christmas it will be just barely. That inch of snow is all we are getting, and it is being well trampled (and wasn't enough off the beaten path).
Putting up the tree lights last night we discovered that we couldn't get but 2 small strings of lights to work. I had noticed that a store was going half price on Christmas decorations, so I thought that this would be my chance. Ya know whty they were half off? Because no-one would buy them at full price. Poor selection. I don't like single color lights, but it was dificult to find anything but. Lots of white. Lots of nets. Lots of icicles. Lots of deer. Found two 24 multi-color light strings. I guess this was just not my year.
The plastic star tree-topper that we have used since '83? was replaced last night. I wanted a glass angel for a tree-topper. Lots of Santas, no angels. Finally found just a plain glass spire. Better than what I had, but I will have to keep my eyes open for what I want.
Brief rant:
I have noticed around here that the "True Meaning of Christmas" seems to be going away again/still. I don't think I have seen more than a half dozen manger displays, but lots (dozens? hundred+?) deer/Santa displays. How would you like it if at your birthday party the star guest was a fictional character and you weren't even invited? Remember the old Red Skelton story about that?
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Putting up the tree lights last night we discovered that we couldn't get but 2 small strings of lights to work. I had noticed that a store was going half price on Christmas decorations, so I thought that this would be my chance. Ya know whty they were half off? Because no-one would buy them at full price. Poor selection. I don't like single color lights, but it was dificult to find anything but. Lots of white. Lots of nets. Lots of icicles. Lots of deer. Found two 24 multi-color light strings. I guess this was just not my year.
The plastic star tree-topper that we have used since '83? was replaced last night. I wanted a glass angel for a tree-topper. Lots of Santas, no angels. Finally found just a plain glass spire. Better than what I had, but I will have to keep my eyes open for what I want.
Brief rant:
I have noticed around here that the "True Meaning of Christmas" seems to be going away again/still. I don't think I have seen more than a half dozen manger displays, but lots (dozens? hundred+?) deer/Santa displays. How would you like it if at your birthday party the star guest was a fictional character and you weren't even invited? Remember the old Red Skelton story about that?
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Friday, December 22, 2006
Friday December 22, 2006
Maybe a white Christmas????? We got about a half inch of snow last night, about 30F this morning, and a chance of more snow today and tomorrow. But the weather forecast is nice for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which is nice for those that need to travel on those days.
Gas is 2.29 this morning. Last Saturday/Sunday it was at 2.15, with some stations at 2.19, then Monday morning (?) it jumped to 2.35!!! across the board.
Finally got a Christmas tree last night, just as it started snowing. Better than last year, didn't get it until Christmas Eve. Last year there were a lot of Christmas trees for sale on Christmas Eve, so I could take my pick of just about anything at half price. This year we found three gas stations with trees for sale. All the big lots are packed up and gone. And I doubt that those three gas stations had more than 25 trees combined. Found a nice one though at Shallow Lake Store. Very fresh and smells nice. And I thought it appropriate that it started snowing as I was about 2 miles from the store, so when we got there the ground was almost white. The house is about 4 miles north of Shallow Lake Store, but about 8 miles by road. About two miles from home we drove out of the snow, and it wasn't snowing at home, but it started by the time the tree came in.
I think this is the first Christmas that we have been a bit scattered. Evan will be visiting his lady friend's family this Christmas. Jon's lady friend will be with us this Christmas, and the situation will be reversed for New Years; Jon will be at his lady friend's family's for New Years while Evan and his lady friend will be with us. (What a mess of apostrophe's!!!) I thought for a little bit that Evvy would be at her boyfriend's for Christmas, but I guess she is supposed to come home sometime today.
I still haven't done my Christmas shopping yet. It's hard for me to think about presents while fighting the traffic and the crowds and the job and the finances and so on. But maybe this afternoon I will manage it. Maybe if it snows more some folks will stay home and that will give me a break.
Time to pretend to work now.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!
Gas is 2.29 this morning. Last Saturday/Sunday it was at 2.15, with some stations at 2.19, then Monday morning (?) it jumped to 2.35!!! across the board.
Finally got a Christmas tree last night, just as it started snowing. Better than last year, didn't get it until Christmas Eve. Last year there were a lot of Christmas trees for sale on Christmas Eve, so I could take my pick of just about anything at half price. This year we found three gas stations with trees for sale. All the big lots are packed up and gone. And I doubt that those three gas stations had more than 25 trees combined. Found a nice one though at Shallow Lake Store. Very fresh and smells nice. And I thought it appropriate that it started snowing as I was about 2 miles from the store, so when we got there the ground was almost white. The house is about 4 miles north of Shallow Lake Store, but about 8 miles by road. About two miles from home we drove out of the snow, and it wasn't snowing at home, but it started by the time the tree came in.
I think this is the first Christmas that we have been a bit scattered. Evan will be visiting his lady friend's family this Christmas. Jon's lady friend will be with us this Christmas, and the situation will be reversed for New Years; Jon will be at his lady friend's family's for New Years while Evan and his lady friend will be with us. (What a mess of apostrophe's!!!) I thought for a little bit that Evvy would be at her boyfriend's for Christmas, but I guess she is supposed to come home sometime today.
I still haven't done my Christmas shopping yet. It's hard for me to think about presents while fighting the traffic and the crowds and the job and the finances and so on. But maybe this afternoon I will manage it. Maybe if it snows more some folks will stay home and that will give me a break.
Time to pretend to work now.
Merry Christmas Everyone!!
Friday, December 15, 2006
Friday December 15, 2006
Don't know if you see it, and I generally don't mess with this stuff, but at the top of my page is an ad for Beliefnet.com, they have a "Belief-O-Matic" quiz to determine what your religion is. (Link: "http://beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html")
I took the Quiz; here is a synopsis of the results; nothing new here:
Your Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.
Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (87%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (81%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (79%)
5. Roman Catholic (79%)
6. Jehovah's Witness (75%)
7. Bahai Faith (74%)
8. Seventh Day Adventist (73%)
9. Orthodox Quaker (71%)
10. Orthodox Judaism (67%)
11. Islam (62%)
12. Sikhism (51%)
13. Liberal Quakers (50%)
14. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (47%)
15. Reform Judaism (34%)
16. Unitarian Universalism (33%)
17. Hinduism (23%)
18. New Thought (20%)
19. Jainism (15%)
20. Nontheist (12%)
21. Mahayana Buddhism (8%)
22. Scientology (8%)
23. Theravada Buddhism (8%)
24. Neo-Pagan (7%)
25. New Age (6%)
26. Secular Humanism (6%)
27. Taoism (6%)
I took the Quiz; here is a synopsis of the results; nothing new here:
Your Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.
Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
1. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (87%)
3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (81%)
4. Eastern Orthodox (79%)
5. Roman Catholic (79%)
6. Jehovah's Witness (75%)
7. Bahai Faith (74%)
8. Seventh Day Adventist (73%)
9. Orthodox Quaker (71%)
10. Orthodox Judaism (67%)
11. Islam (62%)
12. Sikhism (51%)
13. Liberal Quakers (50%)
14. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (47%)
15. Reform Judaism (34%)
16. Unitarian Universalism (33%)
17. Hinduism (23%)
18. New Thought (20%)
19. Jainism (15%)
20. Nontheist (12%)
21. Mahayana Buddhism (8%)
22. Scientology (8%)
23. Theravada Buddhism (8%)
24. Neo-Pagan (7%)
25. New Age (6%)
26. Secular Humanism (6%)
27. Taoism (6%)
Friday December 15, 2006
Well, score a victory for the brown blight, the white did not last the morning before the rain washed it away. Very weird weather.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Thursday December 14, 2006
Ahhh, beautiful, snowy, slushy, slippery, weather. Things were just getting waaay too brown, maybe the blight will get covered up by the fresh snow.
Besides, I think we are going to go Christmas Tree hunting this weekend, and we have to have snow on the ground to do it properly. Right?
Besides, I think we are going to go Christmas Tree hunting this weekend, and we have to have snow on the ground to do it properly. Right?
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
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