Month: December 2009
At The Moment …
The boys are at their cousins’ house playing games, laughing themselves silly and drinking copious amounts of soda.
They’re having fun and I’m glad.
But I miss them.
*****
Kevin got a really strange call from his company’s alarm provider. It was enough for him to fairly sprint to the bedroom, change from his comfy sweats to jeans and then high tail it out to his truck. I fretted and worried about him on Twitter and was just about to call him, when I heard the garage door open.
Meeting him at the door, I learned that though his office was okay, the building did indeed have some smoke pouring out of it, but at the opposite end of the building. Fire trucks were already there when he arrived and they walked through his office to make sure everything was okay.
Kevin has had to field several late night alarm calls over the years and though he’s left to physically check on the office, all of them turned out to be false alarms. What was different about this call was the call itself. The operator didn’t say, “there is an alarm,” but rather “there is a fire and the fire trucks are already there.” That slight difference was enough to throw Kevin into full-scale alarm mode. Which in turn freaked me out because he’s usually so calm when these things happen.
It all ended well, but it was still pretty creepy.
*****
We have a really busy day ahead of us tomorrow. I have to pick the boys up from their cousins’ house pretty early so they can get home, shower and rest up so we can go over to my mom and dad’s house for our Christmas get together (our weather didn’t cooperate on Christmas day). We’ll likely be there all afternoon.
Then, tomorrow night, we’re going over to my sister-in-law’s to play “Settlers of Catan.” The boys will play pool or the Wii with yet more cousins.
I wager they are going to be exhausted by the time we get home tomorrow night.
*****
I started a photo blog. It’s all Jen’s fault. She’s participating in Project 365 and started a photo blog so she can post her photos and I thought, “why not?”
And I did the same. I will give ya’ll the link to the photo blog January 1st.
I actually tried to do this at the beginning of 2009 and got all the way to March before I fizzled out. I now know that the ONLY way I’ll be able to pull this off is if I
A. get in the HABIT of taking my camera with me everywhere and then USING it
and B. if I train myself to LOOK for photo opportunities – even in the most mundane of things.
I can’t promise mind-blowing photos, but it should be fun, nonetheless.
*****
I now know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I’m a full-fledged idiot. For those that don’t know, I got a DS for Christmas and I’ve been playing “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”. It’s a mystery game slash puzzle game and the puzzles are totally kicking my a$$.
I mean, TOTALLY. I mean, SO BADLY that I’m having to cheat in order to even MOVE PAST the darn thing.
It’s quite embarrassing to admit that I am indeed STUPID.
But I’m having fun (as long as I can eventually cheat my way through it!)
*****
I”m writing my 2010 Anti-Resolution / Goals posts. I looked over my list from last year and I’ll post my thoughts on THAT soon.
*****
I need to take our Christmas tree down.
*sad face*
Flash Fiction: Obeying the Rules
Fiction under 250 words.
_________________________________
“Can this light be any slower?”
Debbie impatiently tapped the tips of her brand new French manicured nails on the steering wheel. Her lips moved silently as she chastised herself for not running the light. If she had, she’d be inside the building and on her way to THE interview of her life. She would never forgive herself if she didn’t get the job – since when was she a law-abiding citizen?
She glanced in her side mirror and noticed a blood red SUV right on her rear bumper. She huffed in irritation and lifted her eyes to study the woman behind the wheel. The woman was sitting ramrod straight and perfectly still. Her face was expressionless, her teeth were clenched and she appeared to be staring directly into Debbie’s eyes.
Debbie blinked and averted her gaze. What was that woman’s problem? She was just sitting there, she couldn’t go, it was a red light. She shifted her eyes to the road and noted with a start, there were no cars coming toward her. She could safely go. But what if there was a cop close by? What if he saw her run the light and stopped her? She would really be late then.
She inched her mustang a few inches ahead. She caught the SUV’s impatient lurch in the corner of her eye. She looked in her side mirror again. The woman flipped her off with an angry flick.
Debbie chuckled and smiled for the first time that day.
Protected: Intervention
Have I Mentioned …
Monday Mentions is an easy way to share any and all of the fun things you’ve discovered recently, online or otherwise. For more information read this post by the mastermind behind this whole thing, Jen @ Daily Mish Mash. Here’s what I’ve discovered this week…
1. This news story was in our local newspaper a few days back.
“Five Injured When Motorist Slows for Dog”
A motorist who tried to avoid hitting a dog got back-ended on eastbound Interstate 44 near the Missouri 744 interchange Sunday, resulting in injuries to five people in the two cars, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Two things bother me about this story:
A. This poor woman, the driver who slowed for the dog, was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t. On the one hand, she can’t be expected to run the dog down, that would be inhumane, so of course, she needs to try and avoid hitting the dog.
BUT – should she do that at the risk of injuring/killing herself and/or injuring/killing the other people on the highway? What is worth more, the life of a dog, or the life of a human? Thought provoking scenario, don’t you think?
And
B. The person who rear-ended her got a citation for following her too closely. Now granted, I don’t know just HOW close this guy was to her when he hit her, but let’s think about this rationally – who, in their right mind, expects someone to slow down on the highway, when it’s clear that there hasn’t been an accident ahead and there are no construction areas – the car just stops for no apparent reason. I’m not sure I think the guy SHOULD have gotten a ticket for rear-ending her, quite frankly. Though I understand WHY the police officer did and probably had to because of insurance claims.
But see? The whole thing was a damned if I do and a damned if I don’t sort of problem.
2. This is probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen high schools do in quite some time.
It began in November when Shorecrest High School produced a music video to Outkast’s “Hey Ya!”
The students banded together, performing for four minutes as the camera operator walked the halls of the school while students lip synced to the song. The video was shot with one take, meaning that there were no video cuts. It was all-or-nothing and it became a YouTube hit.
Their longtime competitors in football and band, Shorewood High School, weren’t going to be one-upped. Shorewood has just released their competing video to Hall and Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True.” It was also shot in one take, but with a twist They shot it in reverse. The students had to learn how to lip sync the song backward.
Here is what the original school did:
And then this is what the rival school shot in response:
Now tell me you don’t wish your kids went to these schools. 😀 I’m going to send this to the principal of the boys’ schools. Who knows what’ll happen next.
3. Do you think we should disable teens cell phones when they are driving?
I don’t know, I’m all for it. In fact, let’s take it one step further, let’s disable ALL cell phones so that people can’t use them while driving, period.
4. This not a legal loophole, it’s a serious moral defect.
5. Top 10 Reasons to Kill the Senate Bill
I mean seriously, does it bother anyone that our government officials have gotten SO desperate to pass this monster health care bill that they have resorted to voting at 1:00 in the morning and bribing officials so they will vote their way? I mean, is that even legal?!?
What the HELL are these people thinking?! And why are we allowing them to do this?!
The only thing historic about this bill is the corruption behind it to get it passed.
6. Did you hear that dogs are now a big contributor to Global Warming? Oh, excuse me, I mean Climate Change.
Seriously. Are we HIGH?!
7. We The People – by Ray Stevens
Oh come on people, lighten up. It’s a parody.
8. This, ladies and gentlemen, is my neighbor. He’s a well-known radio jockey in our area.
And yes, he’s THAT delightful in real life. 😀
9. What in the world?!? “Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas“
10. And by the way, nearly all of these links/videos I posted are from my Twitter account, so if you dig random, nutty stuff like this, follow me, ‘kay?
Three Women in Mexico
Three women go down to Mexico one night to celebrate college graduation, get drunk, and wake up in jail, only to find that they are to be executed in the morning, though none of them can remember what they did the night before.
The first one, a redhead, is strapped in the electric chair and is asked if she has any last words. She says, “I just graduated from Trinity Bible College and believe in the almighty power of God to intervene on the behalf of the innocent.” They throw the switch and nothing happens. They all immediately fall to the floor on their knees, beg for forgiveness, and release her.
The second one, a brunette, is strapped in and gives her last words. “I just graduated from the Harvard School of Law and I believe in the power of justice to intervene on the part of the innocent.” They throw the switch and again, nothing happens. Again they all immediately fall to their knees, beg for forgiveness and release her.
The last one (you know it), a blonde, is strapped in and says, “Well, I’m from the University of Georgia and just graduated with a degree in Electrical Engineering, and I’ll tell ya right now, y’all ain’t gonna electrocute nobody if you don’t plug this thing in.
(Found this over at The Birthplace of the Process of Illogical Logic)
Christmas 2009
Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve and Christmas day:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about "Christmas 2009", posted with vodpod
(RSS readers: You’ll have to click over. It’s a Flickr slideshow and I had to use VodPod in order to embed it. Sorry!)
Christmas eve we went over to my in-laws. We ate, exchanged gag gifts and caught up on family news. We went over there at 1:00 and since my sister-in-laws’ family was due to sing at their church that night, we left around 4ish. I’m mentioning this because it REALLY worked out great. We got to see each other, but still had Christmas eve night to spend with our immediate families. I hope we do this again next year.
After we got home, we all watched “The Santa Clause” together. Well actually, I watched the movie, the guys all fell asleep. >:-|
The boys finally went to bed at 11:00 and Kevin couldn’t stay up any longer, so he too went to bed. I stayed up until about 1:00 to make sure Santa made his visit *ahem* and then went to bed. I was back up at 6:00 (it’s just an automatic thing with me – my internal clock WON’T sleep past 6:00 a.m. anymore) and the boys finally got up around 8ish.
We were supposed to go over to my mom and dad’s for Christmas lunch, but the weather turned nasty and my brother got NINE inches of snow. I don’t know how much my sister got, but I’m sure it was enough to cause driving problems. So … everyone canceled. Even though my nephews were down here, they went to spend the day at their dad’s so we decided we would just try to all get together some other time.
This meant we got to spend the day at home on Christmas day. And even though I was bummed that our extended family couldn’t make it down, it WAS really nice to just spend a quiet, relaxing day in our PJ’s.
The pictures really say it all. I think the boys really had a good Christmas. We surprised them with an iTouch – they hadn’t asked for one but we knew they would love it. We’ve sort of made it a point to give them one WOW gift – you know? Something that would mark THIS Christmas as unique. So when they think back over their childhood they remember the Christmas when they received an iTouch.
Kevin also bought the boys a better graphics card for their computers (he got a really good deal online). That’s probably the biggest downfall to computer games – they get more sophisticated and after a while their computers can’t keep up and you’re forced to upgrade. They were both REALLY happy about the cards and they’ve gushed about how awesome their games are running ever since.
Spoken like true nerds.
Dude also got a couple of t-shirts. In fact, I think that was his favorite gift this year. He’s been asking for these particular t-shirts for about a year now. And the reason he hasn’t gotten them before now? They’re freaking $20 bucks a piece! OUCH! But they’re advertising a game he’s especially fond of and he knows the guys who run the site (he chats with them online) and he really wanted to help support them.
Jazz’s favorite gift was the iTouch. He’s really been into music (which isn’t a real surprise given the fact the boy loves his saxophone) and he’s already loaded quite a few (free) apps on to it. In addition, he gets a kick out of the fact that he can access his Facebook page from it.
As usual, Kevin spoiled me. He gave me the EA Sports exercise program for the Wii (which I’m really looking forward to trying out this next week), a zoom lens for our Canon Rebel (there’s a picture of it fully extended in the slide show – I’m also really looking forward to using it at marching band competitions) and a mauve rose DS. He also gave me the Book Worm DS game and OH MY GOSH!! I’m totally addicted to it. In fact, Kevin and I have had so much fun with it, that we went out today and bought him a copy so we could play together.
Hey. A family that plays games together stays together, right? 😀
For stocking stuffers, he gave me Sarah Palin glasses (an inside joke, there’s a picture of me wearing them in the slide show) and some sample bottles of Calvin Klein perfume. (I’m wearing some now and *sniiiiiiiif* nice).
The first two presents you see Kevin opening in the slideshow are stage lights. He wants to use them whenever they play a gig (which I just learned is next Saturday night!). I know it’s hard to picture what these things look like, so I took a video of how they work.
Pretty cool, right?! They are triggered by sound. The only problem with them is they have so much going on at once when they play that he’s afraid they may just be a constant flicker of light. We’ll see if he uses them.
We also surprised Kevin with a PS3. I found an incredible package deal on Amazon. I got the PS3 (250 GB!!), PLUS one game PLUS two movies for LESS than I would have paid for just the PS3 in a store. In addition, I used my $50 gift certificate my parents gave me for Christmas last year so honestly, it was almost a steal. (He feels pretty bad about me using my gift certificate on him but honestly, it’s OUR certificate, not just mine. And besides, it made me happy to use it and make the deal that much sweeter).
He’s already played Grand Turismo 5 Prologue (the game that came with the console) and is totally hooked. We went out to Blockbuster today and he rented another off-road racing game. He really digs the racing games. It’s so satisfying to see him so relaxed and happy. The man needs to play more.
We had bought a Honeybaked ham and a cookie cake to take over to my parent’s house, but since our get-together was canceled, we’ve been munching on that stuff for the past two days. I’m going to throw a ham and bean soup together in the next few days to try and get rid of some of the ham. The guys have been eating ham and eggs for breakfast.
Part of me is glad Christmas is over, and part of me wishes we could bottle that warmth, love and excitement to use all year round. That’s my favorite part of the holidays – the fun, the laughter and our appreciation for each other.
Write From Karen 