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The first post of 2008! Hope everyone's having a good holiday and stayed safe last night. Not much going on today, just a relaxing day off... aside from some blogging (and playing around with the new design for this site), I'll just kick back with a book and maybe some video games.

New Year's resolutions? Anyone got 'em? (I'm thinking about it. Nothing yet.)

2008. Possibilities.

I suppose the measure of how good a New Year's party is would be the hangover you have the next day... if so, then the party we had last night was a pretty good one. It wasn't wild or crazy or anything like that, we just had friends over (a bunch of them brought their kids), and it was just the accumulation over the course of the evening that did me in.

That, and the two (two! ugh) shots of Jagermeister I drank. I was mostly fine until that.

Anyway.

I never did the obligatory post-Christmas post-birthday post, either. So I'm rolling it all into one.

My birthday was very nice. We had lunch at the Bend Brewing Company where I drank their Hophead Imperial IPA and their seasonal Doppelbock. Both good. I love the fish and chips there. For dinner we had take-out Chinese and my mom and brother and his girlfriend joined us. Cake was a delicious dense dark chocolate cake.

My gifts? The traditional photo Christmas ornament (the photo is of the kids), a beer rating guide book (the name escapes me at the moment and it's not nearby), Barnes & Noble gift cards, money, a PS2 video game, a bottle of Jack Daniels with a measuring shot glass, and a neat shot glass and beer tasting glass from my brother in San Diego.

Christmas Eve was dinner at our house with the family. Lasagna, this year. (We don't really have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, unlike, say, ham on Christmas day or turkey at Thanksgiving.) We set out the mountain of presents (90% for the kids) and the kids could hardly get to sleep.

Christmas morning the kids were up at 6:30 and going through their stockings by flashlight. So I got up a little before 7, started coffee, checked out the stocking loot, and helped the kids sort out presents. You can imagine what followed.

My gifts? Stephen King's latest novel, Lisey's Story, slippers, a bottle of beer, a book on the making of the Charlie Brown Christmas TV special, some crafty ornaments from the kids, more money, another PS2 game, a gift certificate to Pegasus Books here in town, and surprisingly, I even got the lightsaber I asked for! Totally didn't see that one coming.

Am I forgetting anything? ...probably.

Since then, I've spent some of my money and gift cards on a bunch of books, another PS2 game, some beer. And, I only worked two days in the past 11—five days off around Christmas, two at work, then four more for this last New Year weekend. Going back to work tomorrow? Uh, yeah, not really looking forward to it.

...but at least I'm not still hungover!

A little cross-pollination: over on Hack Bend I'm going to be posting a Holiday Shopping Guide, and I want to make it collaborative as well as listing my own opinions on where to shop for the holidays.

So if you live in Central Oregon and have any recommendations or want a piece of the action, let me know, or comment on my Hack Bend post.

Cheers!

SouthFlorida.com is running a photo gallery of kids scared of Santa Claus, which is gut-busting funny. (Really! I laughed out loud at a lot of these.) But some of these Santas are so messed up that I had to re-run them here. (But go check out the rest.)

Like this one...

Hard-drinkin' Santa

Or this one:

America's Most Wanted Santa

More...

Bank Robbery Gone Bad Santa

And while those are fun, what the hell is with these fake Santas?

Holy shit this freaks me out... it's like Night of the Corn Santa or something

And finally, I think we have what qualifies as Worst Santa Ever:

Via Boing Boing.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is a good one. We're baking pumpkin pies today (made with a gingerbread graham cracker crust) and heading out to my folks' house for dinner and family. Enjoy the long weekend!

When I said "the first part of my day" in my earlier post today, I really had no idea that actually meant "the entire day." Somehow I always undershoot these estimates with the misplaced optimism... like also thinking I'd only need one load of compost...

In order to topdress the lawn with compost, I had to borrow my dad's truck so I could haul it in bulk (ever tried to cover several thousand square feet of lawn with only bags of fertilizer? Me neither, and I wasn't about to try). My mom had suggested steer manure compost, and most places in town that offer it (always in a mix with "yard debris") were outrageously expensive, so we settled on getting it from Hershey Cattle Company over in Redmond for only $15 per yard. This is actually a 40/60 mix of manure with topsoil or something, but it was still half as costly as the next place.

The catch, of course, to borrowing Dad's truck was that I had to drive out to his place (in Alfalfa) and help him load a couch into the back of the truck, which he'd promised to a co-worker. So out I went at 8:30 in the morning. We loaded up the couch, tied it up, and I followed him back into town.

I helped him deliver the couch, to an apartment complex behind COCC, which of course was on the second floor, up a narrow, cracked concrete staircase. Once that was done, we were back to my place, where Dad took my car back home and left me with the truck. By now it was about 10:30.

Let me digress for a bit about Earth Day, since I did mention it in the title to this post. Today being both the anniversary of this blog and Earth Day, it was of course the perfect day to do Earth-friendly yardwork with (ahem) organic eco-friendly fertilizer. My wife transplanted flowers. I worked out in the sun all day. So it doesn't get any more "Earth Day" than that, despite the goofy guy in a "Cat in the Hat" hat on Z21 yapping about how cool it was that there was some parade downtown to celebrate... how cool the Earth is, or something (hey, his words, not mine). Okay, digression over.

I left around 10:50 or so for Redmond. (I actually had to turn back after two blocks because I forgot my tarp. You didn't think I was going to drive all the way back from Redmond with a truckload of manure and not have it tarped, did you?) Let me just say this about my dad's truck: I know it's been awhile since I had my S-10, but holy crap the clutch on his truck is way looser than mine was and that truck's seen some miles (and it was only a year older than mine). I was about halfway to Redmond before I got used to driving it.

Got to the Hershey place, paid for a yard (which pretty much fills up an S-10 truckbed), and panicked a bit when the guy dumped the load of manure into the truck with the backhoe and I thought for a moment the shocks were going to go. All of a sudden I was driving a rear-wheel low-rider—really low. I wasn't looking forward to the drive home (on busy Highway 97 nearly the whole way). So I tarped up the load, tied it, and was pulling out when I realized another nasty little surprise had crept up on me.

You ever drive a pickup truck when it's fully loaded in back? And by "fully loaded" I mean overloaded? Yeah, besides the obvious (it takes a lot longer to speed up and slow down), the entire front end seems to float around, like you're suddenly piloting a wobbly boat. I hadn't really remembered that little phenomenon since living at home and hauling over-burdened loads of hay. I was less than thrilled.

The drive home was uneventful, though (if a little tense). By the time I got back it was nearly 11:30.

Now, this compost was really good, really soil-like in composition. It still stank like steer manure, but it might as well be topsoil in appearance. I figured it would be easy to spread, because we have this little Turf Builder® spreader with adjustable spray opening, and I could just walk around the yard, pushing the spreader and blithely spraying manure all over the place. So I load it up, and the thing won't work worth a damn. It's just too small for what we're dealing with.

So that meant back to the tried-and-true method for cursing gardeners everywhere: wheelbarrow and shovel, and spreading it by hand.

And of course today was a windy day. Not just breezy, but big wind gusts that would come in and handily blow steer manure dust from the shovel all over the place—in your shoes, on your clothes, in your face and eyes. Very lovely. I think I can still sense the stuff in my nasal cavity. But I got a rhythm going finally, and went back for a second load at about 2:30.

Same routine as before, only I think this load was heavier: piloting a jerky boat down the gusty highway. This load went quicker, thanks to my wife helping, and we even had a couple of wheelbarrow loads left over (now in a pile out by the shed). By the time I'd showered and was sitting down to relax, it was 5:20! Where'd the day go? Oh yeah, I got a bunch of shit done... (rim shot).

Now I don't want to get off on a rant here, but I'm really getting tired of owning a lawn. I think I'm beginning to hate it, actually. The stupid thing is full of dry and dead patches, there's not enough topsoil underneath the front half (thus necessitating the topdressing), watering is a joke during the summer months (we're on the edge of the High Desert, remember?), and general maintenance of what amounts to a crop of an invasive plant species is wearing very, very thin with me.

And what are lawns good for, anyway? Let's see, sitting on (watch out for bugs)... avoiding dog poo... playing croquet on (if you're British)... lawn darts (try not to kill the opponent)... hmmm. Jeez, when I was growing up, we had very little lawn, and we kids always ran off to play in the dirt and rocks and trees anyway. Go figure.

(Okay, not entirely true; the lawn made a good wrestling ring when we were trying out WWF wrestling moves. But they say kids shouldn't do that nowadays, so...)

Me, I'd be perfectly happy with a little more natural Central Oregon wilderness. But that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.

The rest of my day involved drinking some beer and reading my favorite new book. Now that's the right way to end a day.

And oh yeah, I even sunburned my neck a bit. Now I'm just a red neck hauling manure around in an old truck.

Go figure.

So. April 1st. Any April Fool's Day stories to pass on? I have one. My wife calls this morning as they're supposed to be leaving San Diego, and says they're not leaving because my daughter has a 103 degree fever. I freak out a little bit.

April Fool's!

That's all I got, actually. I forgot it was the first of April.

In non-practical joke news, I helped Shannon and Brian move into their new apartment in downtown Bend. Well, I and five other people helped. Not a bad move at all, though; they already had everything packed up and ready to go, and they don't own too many big pieces of furniture. And, really, they don't own that much stuff—at least compared to the amount of crap I and my family have been hauling around for years now. So we were mostly done by one o'clock. And got pizza and beer out of the deal.

Their new place is pretty sweet. Overlooking downtown, mere blocks away from, well, everything, with a view of Pilot Butte from the balcony—yeah, we're gonna be hanging out there a lot this summer, I think. Several of us have already discussed getting our own keys and setting up a mini-fridge full of beer on the balcony. :).

For the mathematically-inclined, today is Pi Day. Because today is 3-14. Get it? Even better, the celebration begins at 1:59 p.m.

Curiously enough, today is also Albert Einstein's birthday. Odd coincidence, considering.

On the radio today, to commemorate Mardi Gras, they were asking the question, "What fatty (get it?) food can you not get enough of?" and taking calls. I thought I'd play along.

(Granted, I really don't each too much junk food these days. Bear with me.)

• Doritos. Love 'em. The original nacho cheese flavor is the best.
• Cheesecake.
• Peanut butter.
• Biscuits and gravy. Has to be the creamy sausage gravy, though.
• Apple fritters. Really good apple fritters, not the crunchy overcooked ones.

What else?

Okay, I freely admit I stole the title from Jake. Everyone have a good holiday? Mostly? Good.

There's no denying it, Christmas is for the kids. We had more presents under the tree than ever, I think, almost all for them. And, they're just at that age now where Christmas is a Big Deal, possibly the Biggest Deal of the Whole Year, so it was full frontal X-Mas this year. (Yeah, I chose that phrase deliberately, just to weed out the pervs. I'm watching you.)

So, here's a (mostly boring) list of what I got this year, both for my birthday and Christmas (no particular order):

• Two big fancy bottles of Rogue beer: Imperial Pilsner and Imperial IPA.
• The Confusion and The System of the World (books by Neal Stephenson).
• Clothing: a sweater, a long-sleeved flannel shirt (gotta love the flannel), pajamas.
• A Disney World shot glass mug, etched with my name.
• A new wallet, with a hundred dollar bill in it. I almost didn't find the money, I thought the wallet was nifty enough.
• The board game "Brewopoly."
• Peanuts: the Art of Charles M. Schulz
• A Barnes and Noble gift card
• Money! Some of which I've already used to buy some books and fancy beer
• The annual Christmas ornament with the picture of the kids
• DVDs: The Incredibles and Batman Begins
• The Forty-Niners, a graphic novel
• A reading lamp—a standing lamp with a gooseneck lamp addition
• The Budweiser Brewery from Department 56—a porcelain model building of the original brewery
• And oh yeah, a cat.

After the morning of opening presents and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over new toys and cleaning up and everything, we went out to my parents' house to spend the rest of the day eating and visiting in our traditional Christmas manner. This is actually my favorite part of Christmas, I think, family and friends getting together to celebrate the holiday.

This year we caught up with a family friend we hadn't seen in four years, with an interesting backstory: he's a forensic criminalist based in Ontario, Oregon. That's right, he's a CSI, although, as he put it, without the guns, the drama, or anything like that. He wants to get transferred to Portland because there's not enough homicides in Eastern Oregon... seriously. Mostly it's lab work, identifying meth and other similar drugs.

What's funny is that I was under the impression for years now that he was a forensic psychologist, which is what I'd been telling people. Doesn't that seem more exciting or interesting somehow? I don't know, but I was pretty amused by the thought of him matching wits with the Hannibal Lecters of Eastern Oregon...

Ah, such is Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year!

Charlie Brown:

[shouting in desperation] Isn't there anyone out there who can tell me what Christmas is all about?

Linus:

Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you.
[walks out to center stage]
Lights, please.
[a spotlight shines on Linus]

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'".

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

That's probably my favorite quote about the holiday, pulled of course from the classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Happy First Day of Winter. I know I haven't been posting here much this month, I guess it's kind of been winding down as Christmas approaches and the year ends. On the other hand, I've been posting to The Brew Site every day, so that's good—I've been doing a "Beer Advent Calendar" series of posts each day, which has been a lot of fun and in keeping in good habits of posting something every day somewhere.

To give you an idea of what kinds of things I have on the plate for when I start writing here more often (which could happen tomorrow... or in a few weeks...), here's a totally non-committed list:

• Some more Scooby's at the Front Door fun (you just know I have to)
• A series of stories/anecdotes/recollections of growing up in Central Oregon. I told Simone at one point that I'd be writing these, so I guess I have to eventually :)
• Book reviews... nothing major, just notes on things I've been reading
• Thoughts about "Lost"... odds and ends that occur to me about the show, theories, whatever... I've actually considered starting a blog on one of the free services for this, as an experiment
• A third blog... I'm not gonna say much about this now, but I will say that at some point in the near future I'm launching another blog—a "real" one, not a free-hosted one.

Anyways, Happy Solstice to everyone!

So earlier in the month Shannon floated the idea of a Bend Blogger Christmas party. Not too many people responded, but since then we at least decided on a date if we're going to do it: Saturday, December 10th.

Would there be any interest to this among our local bloggers? I'd emailed a few to test the water, and got some encouraging response (Jake, Wendy...), but I figured it's time to make the general call.

C'mon, Bend Bloggers, let's get some response! Who wants to join us for a Christmas party—gift exchange and all? The sooner we know, the better!

And hey, even if you think it's a lame idea, at least give me some pushback on it! :)

Halloween blogging #5

Here we go, courtesy of Simone, a picture of me dressed up as a vampire for the Halloween party Saturday night. If only I could look so good in real life!

Halloween blogging #4

Being a computer geek, I wish I'd thought of this when carving pumpkins this year: carving an emoticon face instead of a traditional jack o'lantern. That's just cool. The only question would be, which emoticon?

The "mean" face, befitting the holiday: >:-(. Or, perhaps, the squiggly face: :-S. Or, just the good old standard: :).

Something to remember for next year...

Halloween blogging #3

I've really been liking what Rhys is doing over on The Screamstress blog. The Top 13 Worst Halloween Costumes posts are funny as hell, and the Top 13 Scariest Horror Movie Moments are—well, I don't know what exactly, but I'll just say that wow, this is a girl that knows horror movies like I know... beer, I guess. That's kind of scary in itself. :)

Halloween blogging #2

Shamelessly lifted this link from Boing Boing, but it was too cool not to: Worth1000's monsters/classic artwork photoshopping mashup contest. I've done some basic graphics munging here, producing such altered classics as Bayer Heroin, Jedi Master Kermit and the Nebraska State Quarter, but my image manipulation powers pale in comparison to what these guys have pulled off. There's some serious image kung fu here. It's brilliant and topical! They're all really good, but I particularly like the "Scream" painting (which I excerpted) and "The Ring" riff.

Halloween blogging #1

The Fall 2005 issue of Bend Living (no link love, their site sucks and the "current" links point to other articles) has an article titled "Ghost Stories" that explores some of the supposedly haunted places in Bend and Central Oregon. And on the radio last week, they were asking for people to call in to name the haunted places we have around here, so I thought it'd be fun to blog it a bit.

The Bend Living article mentions the Deschutes County Historical Society building, the old Reid School in downtown Bend. Supposedly the ghost of George Brosterhous, who died there in 1914, haunts the place.

The Shadowlands Haunted Place Index for Oregon (which I can thank Rhys for mentioning, if I remember correctly) mentions five for Bend:

The Congress House: This was mentioned on the radio, and is the subject of the only ghost story for Bend found in Ghosts and Strange Critters of Washington and Oregon. According to the Shadowlands site, "there have been a few families that have lived there that have either died or something tragic has happened to them due to living in the cursed house," which is identified in the ghosts book as the McCann House. I don't know about cursed; the book simply mentions that sometimes figures are seen in the upper story windows, and gives a short history of it.

The O'Kane Building: Mentioned in the Bend Living article, too. There's "ghostly smoke, weird lights, footsteps, and voices," and occasionally a voice that calls out orders in the restaurant.

Old Mt. View Hospital: I'm not sure where this is, the site says it's now an apartment building next to Drake Park. Floor creaks have been reporting, like someone's walking around.

The Old Smoke Stacks: They must mean in the Old Mill District, which isn't relevant anymore since they're building it out... But it sounds like teenagers would sneak in there at night to see if the place was haunted.

The Pilot Butte Cemetary: Also mentioned in Bend Living. Reports of ghostly blue orbs floating around.

Independently of these sources, I've also heard the Lara House Bed and Breakfast is haunted. Ironically enough, it's located on Congress Avenue... just like the Congress House mentioned above! (Cue cheesy horror music.)

Other places mentioned in the Bend Living article include the Downing Hotel building in downtown Bend, current site of The Grove restaurant, Bronco Billy's in Sisters (the old Hotel Sisters building), Sunriver Resort's Great Hall, and the New Redmond Hotel in (you guessed it) Redmond.

Shadowlands mentions Redmond, too. In addition to footsteps, there "have been pictures taken and in the pictures there are clearly orbs in the lobby hall. Feelings of a strange presence in the rooms in the middle of the night. Apparitions of a woman have been reported."

So, what else have we got around here? Anyone know of any haunted places I didn't mention?

Shannon blogged it first, I'm still waiting to see if Simone writes it up (or at least puts up the pictures)... I'm talking about the Halloween party we were all at last night. I hadn't been to a Halloween party in I-don't-remember-when, and it's been even longer since I dressed up. I was a vampire, a classic one (not a goth one) with the black pants, white shirt, black cape, etc.

Everyone dressed up, too, which was very cool—you always have these doubts, "will anyone else be dressed up? Am I gonna be the only one?"—but no, everyone who came was in costume. (Well, except for one guy, near the end.) The best costumes, in my opinion, can be seen here—the freakiest, too. Why the best/freakiest? The one on the right is a woman(!).

I'll say this—the hosts, Lance and Katherine, go all out for Halloween. Smoke machine, spooky sounds CD, spider candles, dry ice in the drinks, even cool touches that I wouldn't have thought of like filling gutted pumpkins with dips (and a couple of large ones for the punch—alcoholic and non—with the dry ice dropped into them).

And, of course, a giant, inflatable Scooby Doo at the front door, who kept trying to get in. So that's gonna be the new tagline, I'm thinking. T-shirts, coffee mugs, bumper stickers, viral in a "All your base" kind of way. You're gonna see it everywhere.

Halloween rocks.

Today is Bastille Day in France, their equivalent to our Fourth of July/Independence Day. The Wikipedia article I point to there has a pretty good overview.

On 20 June [1789] the deputies of the Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath (named after the place where they had gathered which was a place where an ancestor of tennis, the "jeu de paume" was played), swearing not to separate until a Constitution had been established. To show their support, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a prison where people were jailed by arbitrary decision of the King (lettre de cachet). The Bastille was, in particular, known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government. Thus the Bastille was a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy.

There were only 7 inmates housed at the time of the siege. The storming of the Bastille was more important as a rallying point and symbolic act of rebellion than a practical act of defiance. No less important in the history of France, it was not the image typically conjured up of courageous French patriots storming the Bastille and freeing hundreds of oppressed peasants. However, it did immediately inspire preparations amongst the peasants for the very real threat of retaliation.

An even more comprehensive history (you gotta love Wikipedia) is found at the Storming of the Bastille article.

Back in the summer of 1989, when I was 16, I spent three weeks in France on a high school trip. We were there for the Fête Nationale (National Holiday), in... Tournon, I believe it was. Not only was it Bastille Day, but it was the bicentennial as well. Sadly, it was half my lifetime ago and I don't remember nearly as much as I should; I remember fireworks in Tournon but the big action was in Paris (where we weren't). I did keep a journal for the time I was there—most of it, anyway—I think I'll dig that up and re-read it. Hell, I'll post it here, even.

In the meantime, happy 14 juillet.

It started with housecleaning, since we were hosting a party at our place. We managed to finish up in time to go to the Pet Parade, which is always fun (though, as someone was telling me later, is just crazy with too many people compared to four years ago). The highlight of the Parade worth blogging about was the flying dog. Someone had harnessed up a little rat dog of some kind to a bunch of big helium balloons, and had it tethered on a leash at about four feet in the air. My thought was, if they drop the leash, the dog is gone—I hope they have a pellet gun!

For the balloons. The balloons. Yeah, I know what you thought I meant the gun was for.

Oh, we saw Shannon in the Parade, as well. And apparently Chris was in it too. A fake monkey? What?

We fought our way to Drake Park where my wife was looking for toe rings and I bought the kids each a beanbag snake. This was the "old fashioned celebration" part of the public festivities they were advertising, I guess—craft vendors and food, though we didn't make it as far as the food.

The party at our house was pretty good. We had my family, old family friends, Shannon and Simone for a little while, a friend of my wife's and even some of my coworkers. The best part of course was the fireworks, especially for the kids. I set off a lot of them, and we were treated to just as many (legal and otherwise) from elsewhere in the neighborhood.

And this was the first year we let the kids stay up until 10 to watch the Pilot Butte fireworks show (which according to the news this evening is the largest in Oregon. Who knew!). We have a nice view of Pilot Butte from our yard, so it was a treat.

The only downside was going back to work the next day (today)... unpleasant. Maybe I'll start taking July 5th off from now on...

Happy Fourth to everyone, hope you all have a good holiday. We'll be down at the Pet Parade at 10, then kids' swimming lessons and a party to prepare for. Plus it's going to be in the mid-80s today, perfect!

...I've been tasked with putting together this monstrosity of a swingset. I've had help, my father-in-law yesterday and today, and tomorrow my dad pitches in. We may finish tomorrow.

Happy Memorial Day to everyone else. I'll likely be cursing before the day is out.

Not only is today Cinco de Mayo, but it's also the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the millenium. 05-05-05. I'm sure people are imagining correlations. I touched on this two years ago in 03/03/03.

Isn't numerology grand?

...has to be this one: Letourneau to wed former pupil. This is just one of those things I have a hard time understanding; this woman should have been kept in jail. For the rest of her life.

Happy Valentine's to everyone. So far this morning it's looking to be a nice day (yet here I am stuck at work...), so here's hoping it's nice for everybody.

And if you're looking for something a little bit different today, I wrote up some Beer Valentines ideas over on The Brew Site blog. Enjoy!

Happy New Year everyone. So far 2005 is turning out uneventful: we cleaned the office, watched some movies. What to expect for this new year? I don't know, maybe for it not to go by so quickly. My grandma was right, the older you get, the quicker time passes.

At any rate, I'm not making any 2005 predictions, it seems like everybody else on the internet is and I'm pretty sure anything I could come up with is already covered somewhere.

I will do some stats, though. Those are always fun. :)

Yes, this is the post where I detail what I got for Christmas, etc. I'll even throw my birthday gifts in there for good measure.

It was a good Christmas, too. (First Christmas in our new house.) After we got up and opened up presents, I made some giant French toast on my new griddle (got it for Christmas), wearing my new bathrobe (Christmas). I also got two cookbooks, Quicksilver, a fifth of Jagermeister, several bottles of McMenamins beer, a Jack Daniels gift set (whiskey plus playing cards and dice), a Barnes and Noble gift card, The Return of the King DVD, and A Charlie Brown Christmas (the book adapted from the original TV special).

For my birthday two days earlier, I received a Peanuts daily desk calendar, a photo Christmas tree ornament (with the kids' picture in it), an unusual sculpture/pen holder for my desk at work, several bottles of McMenamins beer (this was kind of a boozy holiday, I think) along with an Old St. Francis School pint glass, a gift certificate to Pegasus Books (the local comics shop), a personalized keychain, and cash. Cold, hard cash.

All in all, a nice haul.

Some Christmas Eve wishes for everyone. I likely won't be online much tomorrow, there's just too much fun to be had in realspace. So, Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa Claus brings everyone what they want!

So Thursday evening the kids' daycare/preschool had their Christmas program, with each class performing two (or more) songs. Before the performances, Santa and his elves had arrived and all the kids waited in line to see them (although when you're talking about kids ranging in age from 1 to 5, "waiting in line" is relative), and there was a big table full of cookies and treats for everyone. The kids (ours especially) all did great jobs with their respective songs, and while this wasn't a "big" pageant or anything, it still kind of feels like you've "arrived" as a parent when your kids are in a school program on stage.

Friday (last night) was my company's holiday party. ("Holiday" as opposed to "Christmas" because we—as a company—didn't want to offend anyone who might not celebrate Christmas. Have we really gotten so PC and "sensitive" that...? Ah, but that's another rant.) It was a great party, lots of free beer and wine and excellent food and company. Everyone laughed a lot, and even though I didn't win any cool prizes like I did last year, that's all ancillary anyway; it's just as much fun to dress up for the night and go out.

Tonight was my wife's Moms Club Christmas party, so the kids and I had a "night out" of TV dinners (the kids love the frozen kids meals) and Shrek 2. I helped my wife make rum balls earlier in the week for tonight's party, so you know that sets the stage for a long night.

And while not quite like a party, all last week we did Secret Santa at work. That's always fun because getting free stuff is always a great distractor from work itself.

Next week, my birthday, along with Christmas Eve and Day. Oh, and I have a five-day weekend for it all, too. Gotta love this time of year!

So, re-watching Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with the kids this last week, made me realize just how long it had been since I'd last seen this special: not long enough.

It's been 40 years since it came out, and this might be blasphemy to say, but it really hasn't aged well. The animation is terrible! And what a weird-ass story.

And disturbing. The Island of Misfit Toys was weird enough, but get a load of the talking gun. Or the way Yukon Cornelius licks his pick-axe to check for gold. Or Santa—I get the feeling this version of Santa Claus would have no problem dining on venison.

But the worst of all is how they deal with the Abominable Snow Monster. What I thought I remembered was that he was only mean because he had a bad tooth, and Hermie the Dental Elf fixed it for him. No! No, what really happens is Hermie pulls every one of his teeth out with pliers and then they all try to kill the newly-defanged Snow Monster. Holy shit!

I think I preferred my nostalgic version. At least it was messed up in a good way.

As usual, it was as cold as a witch's tit last night for Halloween, but at least it wasn't snowing or anything; last year I wrote that it was in the teens. Fortunately this year it was "only" around 30 degrees.

Ah, but this year we live in a new neighborhood! One that's filled with houses, unlike our old one that we could hit maybe four or five when trick-or-treating. We took the kids up and down several blocks, amassing a small fortune in candy and revelling in the wonderment of people, before the cold finally drove us home. What's interesting is that our house sits at the end of a cul-de-sac in the new development, which only has four other houses with people in them... so our doorbell only rang perhaps three times because nobody wanted to wander off the beaten path down the dark street for only one house. So in that respect, it was very much like our old neighborhood.

Whatever, it was still a good Halloween; the best part is watching the kids enjoy it more as they get older and have a better grip of what's going on. Although my youngest needs to work on his timing: they'd ring the doorbell and he would immediately say "Trick or treat!" before anyone actually opened the door.

And Jake has the best Halloween story. I think I'm most glad I don't live in his neighborhood :).

I kind of doubt I'll be online posting much tomorrow, so a pre-emptive note for everyone to have a fun, safe July 4th. We'll be shooting from the hip as far as plans go tomorrow; I'm taking the kids to the Pet Parade downtown at 10 for sure. Should be a good day.

And we can see Pilot Butte from our new house! It's the first time in something like five years we'll be able to see the fireworks. That's cool.

Better late than never, I suppose, but here's hoping everyone had a good Easter today.

Growing up, I could never understand why Easter always fell on a different day each year, rather than like "regular" holidays like the Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving. Ironically, it was some computer programming trivia that clued me in to how Easter Sunday's date is determined:

Easter is the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox.

No, I don't really care for April Fool's Day on the Web. I find it amusing for exactly 90 seconds when the occasional, well-done, online April Fool's prank shows up, but when sites like Slashdot and others have every other item an April Fool's joke, it gets really old really fast.

Just a quick note to wish everyone (Irish or not) a happy St. Patrick's Day today.

Enjoy some Guinness!

It's a little late in the evening, I know, but better late than never, I figure:

Happy Valentine's Day!