Yesterday (Friday) was mostly spent prepping for today's party.
We went shopping—oh, how we went shopping— for party ingredients. Let's see... we went to Costco (which wasn't open yet), Trader Joe's, back to Costco (which was open by that time), Party World, then home. At Costco we discovered that they'll give you cash for returns without a receipt. Anyway, after we unpacked everythign at home we went to Metropolitan Market and someplace else (I swear). Then I took Carrie to work for a bit and went to Fred Meyer by myself. I came home and was able to take a quick nap before picking up Carrie.
We went to dinner at The Rosewood, and also got some takeout which we took to Missa & Travis, as they're kind of sicky. Everybody is kind of sicky right now. It's kind of sucky.
We started cleaning the house for a while, but then Viki dropped the kids off so Carrie cleaned while I entertained by playing Animal Crossing and putting on Clone Wars Volume 2. Another sucky thing is that Julian & I both have the same fruit in our towns (oranges), so we couldn't even get exotic fruit by visiting each other. Ah, well.
This is Chris dot com
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Party Prep
posted by Christopher at 9:23 AM 
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Friday, December 30, 2005
Clean Orifice Office
Yesterday (Thursday) I spent the whole day cleaning the office. And I do mean the whole day.
Well, I took a couple of meal breaks and watched Clone Wars and went to the bathroom and stuff like that. But for the most part it was clean, clean, clean. I took down all my toys and dusted them and the shelves they were on before putting them back nice and orderly-like. Stuff like that.
Towards the end of the evening I wheeled anything mobile out of the room and let Roomba work on it while I dusted the stuff I moved out.
After I dropped Carrie off for her class she called me and asked if I could bring over some nose spray or decongestant or something. We didn't have anything that was non-drowsy, so I just brought her some nose spray. I ran into Brandy at the store and jokingly thanked her for giving my wife a cold. Poor Brandy! She's been sick for almost two weeks now! It's crazy! She's been sick almost as long as she's been home.
Fortunately for Carrie, though, it meant that she happened to have non-drowsy cold medicine with her, which she kindly shared.
One cool thing that happened while cleaning was when I was moving my big art portfolios one of them broke, and a whole bunch of old-timey art fell out. A bunch of stuff I hadn't seen in a long time (and a bunch I don't remember doing). I'm going to be putting them up in my Portfolio area, though probably not until after the new year due to time constraints. So watch for those.
Well, I took a couple of meal breaks and watched Clone Wars and went to the bathroom and stuff like that. But for the most part it was clean, clean, clean. I took down all my toys and dusted them and the shelves they were on before putting them back nice and orderly-like. Stuff like that.
Towards the end of the evening I wheeled anything mobile out of the room and let Roomba work on it while I dusted the stuff I moved out.
After I dropped Carrie off for her class she called me and asked if I could bring over some nose spray or decongestant or something. We didn't have anything that was non-drowsy, so I just brought her some nose spray. I ran into Brandy at the store and jokingly thanked her for giving my wife a cold. Poor Brandy! She's been sick for almost two weeks now! It's crazy! She's been sick almost as long as she's been home.
Fortunately for Carrie, though, it meant that she happened to have non-drowsy cold medicine with her, which she kindly shared.
One cool thing that happened while cleaning was when I was moving my big art portfolios one of them broke, and a whole bunch of old-timey art fell out. A bunch of stuff I hadn't seen in a long time (and a bunch I don't remember doing). I'm going to be putting them up in my Portfolio area, though probably not until after the new year due to time constraints. So watch for those.
posted by Christopher at 8:11 AM
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Thursday, December 29, 2005
Pacman is a Puppet
A very funny Gametap commercial:
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/2223/
http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/2223/
posted by Christopher at 9:18 AM
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Goodbye, Christmas
Yesterday (Wednesday) morning Carrie informed me that she was sick. Well, heck. That sucks.
I took her to work then did a lot of work on Chris Fantz's website before picking Carrie up for lunch, which consisted of Spaghetti-Os. I think Spaghetti-Os are absolutely disgusting, but Carrie likes them so I put a can in her stocking. They're also soft and easy to eat with a sore mouth.
After I dropped her off at work again I went to Bartell's and picked up some cold stuff and toothpaste and mouthwash. Then I stopped by the Neighborhood Market and got four more cans of Spaghetti-Os for her.
I came back home and brought inside the boxes into which we packed our everyday decore when we replaced it with Christmas decor. I unpacked all those boxes and unwrapped all the packing material, making a huge mess in the living room and dining room. Then Carrie called asking to be brought home. I warned her to keep her eyes closed when she went inside because I didn't want the mess stressing her out.
The vast majority of the rest of the day was spent taking down and boxing up (well, I put them in bins, not boxes, so I guess I should say binning up) all the Christmas decorations, and moving the Christmas tree outside. I watched Serenity while I did this. The only remnants of Christmas now are a couple of bags of gifts that we haven't unpacked yet. The mess was gone by the end of the day.
Carrie also worked and cleaned all the surfaces (expect floor) in the kitchen and bathroom, and set Roomba loose in the laundry room.
We put on Buffy season 2 disc 2 when we went to bed, although I had trouble falling asleep so I read some of Time for the Stars to make me drowsy.
I took her to work then did a lot of work on Chris Fantz's website before picking Carrie up for lunch, which consisted of Spaghetti-Os. I think Spaghetti-Os are absolutely disgusting, but Carrie likes them so I put a can in her stocking. They're also soft and easy to eat with a sore mouth.
After I dropped her off at work again I went to Bartell's and picked up some cold stuff and toothpaste and mouthwash. Then I stopped by the Neighborhood Market and got four more cans of Spaghetti-Os for her.
I came back home and brought inside the boxes into which we packed our everyday decore when we replaced it with Christmas decor. I unpacked all those boxes and unwrapped all the packing material, making a huge mess in the living room and dining room. Then Carrie called asking to be brought home. I warned her to keep her eyes closed when she went inside because I didn't want the mess stressing her out.
The vast majority of the rest of the day was spent taking down and boxing up (well, I put them in bins, not boxes, so I guess I should say binning up) all the Christmas decorations, and moving the Christmas tree outside. I watched Serenity while I did this. The only remnants of Christmas now are a couple of bags of gifts that we haven't unpacked yet. The mess was gone by the end of the day.
Carrie also worked and cleaned all the surfaces (expect floor) in the kitchen and bathroom, and set Roomba loose in the laundry room.
We put on Buffy season 2 disc 2 when we went to bed, although I had trouble falling asleep so I read some of Time for the Stars to make me drowsy.
posted by Christopher at 8:44 AM
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Happy 2nd Day of Kwanzaa, Joss Whedon
Yesterday (Tuesday) evening while Carrie was teaching class, I went and spent all my Christmas money and gift certificates.
First stop was Best Buy, where I spent all my Best Buy gift certificates as well as a large chunk of cash on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen Collection. While I was there I also looked for Serenity, but it was completely sold out.
2nd stop was Target, where I picked up some paper towels and four big storage bins into which I could put all of the Christmas decorations. While I was there I also looked for Serenity, but it was completely sold out.
So I swung by Fred Meyer's where they had Serenity in abundance.
So, yes, on the 2nd day of Kwanzaa I spent my Christmas money entirely on Joss Whedon products.
First stop was Best Buy, where I spent all my Best Buy gift certificates as well as a large chunk of cash on Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen Collection. While I was there I also looked for Serenity, but it was completely sold out.
2nd stop was Target, where I picked up some paper towels and four big storage bins into which I could put all of the Christmas decorations. While I was there I also looked for Serenity, but it was completely sold out.
So I swung by Fred Meyer's where they had Serenity in abundance.
So, yes, on the 2nd day of Kwanzaa I spent my Christmas money entirely on Joss Whedon products.
posted by Christopher at 8:56 AM
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Fantastico's New Best Friend
On Christmas Day one of my lifelong dreams came true. My whole life I've wanted to own a robot. A real robot; one that serves a useful function and can act autonomously.
That's right. After 28 years (and five years into the 21st century) I finally own a robot of my very own:
A Roomba! Yesterday (Monday) I tried it out for the first time. It got stuck a couple of times and beeped for help, but other than that it worked flawlessly. How I don't have to vaccuum the floor myself; I have an electronic slave friend to do it for me.
He is also Fantastico's new best friend. The whole time Roomba was working, Fantastico stayed three feet away from him and just watched and watched and watched. She hissed at him when it got stuck under the couch, but by the end of the day she was getting kinda used to him (I kept on running him because it was just so much fun to watch him work).
Anyway. Yesterday was the 1st day of Kwanzaa, so happy Kwanzaa, everybody. Last night was the 2nd night of Hanukkah, so Happy Hanukka, everybody.
Carrie had the troubles waking up in the morning, so she didn't go to work until her official start time of 9:00 (as opposed to the 8:00 time she usually shoots for). Geoff was dropping Brandy off (with some homemade Gibbs cinnamon rolls) at the same time, so I took him back to my house and showed off the cool stuff I got, including Roomba.
A couple hours later Carrie called and asked if I could bring down all of the many CDs she got for Christmas (seriously, she got something like eight or ten). So I drove them down to her and she told me I could have a cinnamon roll.
I walked out into the store on my way to the party room (where cinnamon rolls live). Brandy saw me and said, "Oh, you've come to work for me so I can go home?" She was still rather sick. Take it from me and Carrie, it sucks to be sick on Christmas. I felt bad for her. So to make it up to her I ate one of the cinnamon rolls. All right, so that did nothing for her. But it tasted goot to me, baby!
I spent much of the day enjoying my Christmas presents and not enjoying cleaning dishes. Viki dropped Carrie off after work so I didn't have to go pick her up. Then we went straight to Half-Priced Books so Carrie could spend some of her Christmas moneys on party/cooking/entertaining books. I also picked up Time for the Stars, the only Heinlein book I've never actually owned (I read it in a library once), for $2.
We swung by Metropolitan Market on the way home (even though it is no way, shape, or form on the way home) and bought some soup and croissants for din-dins on account of their being soft and easy for Carrie to eat.
The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the kitchen, doing dishes, playing Animal Crossing: Wild World, and watching James Bond movies on the TV.
We didn't actually get to bed until after midnight. I was able to watch (for the first time) some NWA:TNA wrestling. The main event was Christian versus me! Well, okay, not really me.
That's right. After 28 years (and five years into the 21st century) I finally own a robot of my very own:
A Roomba! Yesterday (Monday) I tried it out for the first time. It got stuck a couple of times and beeped for help, but other than that it worked flawlessly. How I don't have to vaccuum the floor myself; I have an electronic slave friend to do it for me.
He is also Fantastico's new best friend. The whole time Roomba was working, Fantastico stayed three feet away from him and just watched and watched and watched. She hissed at him when it got stuck under the couch, but by the end of the day she was getting kinda used to him (I kept on running him because it was just so much fun to watch him work).
Anyway. Yesterday was the 1st day of Kwanzaa, so happy Kwanzaa, everybody. Last night was the 2nd night of Hanukkah, so Happy Hanukka, everybody.
Carrie had the troubles waking up in the morning, so she didn't go to work until her official start time of 9:00 (as opposed to the 8:00 time she usually shoots for). Geoff was dropping Brandy off (with some homemade Gibbs cinnamon rolls) at the same time, so I took him back to my house and showed off the cool stuff I got, including Roomba.
A couple hours later Carrie called and asked if I could bring down all of the many CDs she got for Christmas (seriously, she got something like eight or ten). So I drove them down to her and she told me I could have a cinnamon roll.
I walked out into the store on my way to the party room (where cinnamon rolls live). Brandy saw me and said, "Oh, you've come to work for me so I can go home?" She was still rather sick. Take it from me and Carrie, it sucks to be sick on Christmas. I felt bad for her. So to make it up to her I ate one of the cinnamon rolls. All right, so that did nothing for her. But it tasted goot to me, baby!
I spent much of the day enjoying my Christmas presents and not enjoying cleaning dishes. Viki dropped Carrie off after work so I didn't have to go pick her up. Then we went straight to Half-Priced Books so Carrie could spend some of her Christmas moneys on party/cooking/entertaining books. I also picked up Time for the Stars, the only Heinlein book I've never actually owned (I read it in a library once), for $2.
We swung by Metropolitan Market on the way home (even though it is no way, shape, or form on the way home) and bought some soup and croissants for din-dins on account of their being soft and easy for Carrie to eat.
The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the kitchen, doing dishes, playing Animal Crossing: Wild World, and watching James Bond movies on the TV.
We didn't actually get to bed until after midnight. I was able to watch (for the first time) some NWA:TNA wrestling. The main event was Christian versus me! Well, okay, not really me.
posted by Christopher at 8:55 AM
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Monday, December 26, 2005
Christmajesty 2005
Let's talk about Christmas, for that is the most recent holiday, unless you count the first night of Hanukkah, which was also December 25th.
Carrie & I got up in the morning and didn't shower or nothin'. We went to her folks' house and ate a very casual breakfast; the food was laid out on the kitchen table and we just grabbed plates and food and ate at the couch in the living room. First came stockings, then came presents. Stockings are a free-for-all at that house; you just open and open and open until you're done. I finished first.
Presents are done in rounds. One person hands out a present to every person there, then those are all opened simultaneously. I ran out of presents before other people, but that's okay because I got some really cool stuff, including Gorillaz' Demon Days, the Star Wars Trilogy box set (finally), a new track jacket, Kirby's Canvas Curse, and a big present I'll tell y'all about tomorrow after I use it.
We gave Carrie's dad a new MP3 player, and I spent quite a while getting it to run on their old-school computer. Then I taught Jim how to use it (he made a cheet sheet with the steps on it) and put music on it.
At 2:00 we dashed back to the house here to drop off all the presents 'cause we didn't want them sitting in the car at my folks' house. Then we went to my folks' house.
When we got there the place was empty. Oooooh... scary...
Everyone was still over at Grandma's. Michael came over shortly saying that he had been sent to meet us, but we beat him there! Ha ha! He showed us the cards he'd made featuring everyone's favorite Christmas icon, Krampus (seriously, follow that link if you've never heard of Krampus). Then the rest of the people started trickling in, including Jason & Alexis. Once everone was there we started the doing the presents thingy.
The way it worked in this house was that one person would hand out all of their gifts for other people to those people. Then each person would take a turn opening that present so everyone else could watch them do it.
Carrie was very supplised when she opened the present from me, because I got her an iPod Nano. We were both very surprised when we opened the presents from my mom, because they weren't just one present each. They were like six presents all wrapped together; I got a stack of DVDs and Carrie got CDs and books and all sorts of stuff. It was purdy coo'.
Taisha showed up (after calling and asking for directions due to being lost) and we all had the dinner together, ten of'n us around a big long table. I got to sit at one end between Carrie on my left and Taisha on my right.
After dinner we played some 4-person Mario Kart for a while before that fizzled out. Then it was back to the table for an apple pie dessert. We were shocked that we were going back to the table, because we've never eaten dessert at the table in my family's house.
Carrie & I came back to our house eventually. We watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin (one of the DVDs that Carrie got), then put on The Adventures of Pete & Pete Season 2 (one of the DVDs that I got) and went to sleep.
A rather good Christmas. Hopefully next year neither one of us will have recently had mouth surgery. It'd be nice to have a Christmas where both of us are perfectly healthy!
Hope you and yours had or are having a good holiday.
Carrie & I got up in the morning and didn't shower or nothin'. We went to her folks' house and ate a very casual breakfast; the food was laid out on the kitchen table and we just grabbed plates and food and ate at the couch in the living room. First came stockings, then came presents. Stockings are a free-for-all at that house; you just open and open and open until you're done. I finished first.
Presents are done in rounds. One person hands out a present to every person there, then those are all opened simultaneously. I ran out of presents before other people, but that's okay because I got some really cool stuff, including Gorillaz' Demon Days, the Star Wars Trilogy box set (finally), a new track jacket, Kirby's Canvas Curse, and a big present I'll tell y'all about tomorrow after I use it.
We gave Carrie's dad a new MP3 player, and I spent quite a while getting it to run on their old-school computer. Then I taught Jim how to use it (he made a cheet sheet with the steps on it) and put music on it.
At 2:00 we dashed back to the house here to drop off all the presents 'cause we didn't want them sitting in the car at my folks' house. Then we went to my folks' house.
When we got there the place was empty. Oooooh... scary...
Everyone was still over at Grandma's. Michael came over shortly saying that he had been sent to meet us, but we beat him there! Ha ha! He showed us the cards he'd made featuring everyone's favorite Christmas icon, Krampus (seriously, follow that link if you've never heard of Krampus). Then the rest of the people started trickling in, including Jason & Alexis. Once everone was there we started the doing the presents thingy.
The way it worked in this house was that one person would hand out all of their gifts for other people to those people. Then each person would take a turn opening that present so everyone else could watch them do it.
Carrie was very supplised when she opened the present from me, because I got her an iPod Nano. We were both very surprised when we opened the presents from my mom, because they weren't just one present each. They were like six presents all wrapped together; I got a stack of DVDs and Carrie got CDs and books and all sorts of stuff. It was purdy coo'.
Taisha showed up (after calling and asking for directions due to being lost) and we all had the dinner together, ten of'n us around a big long table. I got to sit at one end between Carrie on my left and Taisha on my right.
After dinner we played some 4-person Mario Kart for a while before that fizzled out. Then it was back to the table for an apple pie dessert. We were shocked that we were going back to the table, because we've never eaten dessert at the table in my family's house.
Carrie & I came back to our house eventually. We watched The 40-Year-Old Virgin (one of the DVDs that Carrie got), then put on The Adventures of Pete & Pete Season 2 (one of the DVDs that I got) and went to sleep.
A rather good Christmas. Hopefully next year neither one of us will have recently had mouth surgery. It'd be nice to have a Christmas where both of us are perfectly healthy!
Hope you and yours had or are having a good holiday.
posted by Christopher at 10:31 AM
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A Four-Family Pre-Holiday Day
This is the story of Christmas Eve 2005.
In the morning, as is tradition, Carrie & I joined my family for a breakfast out on the town. This year, as it has been for many years past, we all went to The Village Inn in Federal Way. I had a chicken-fried steak scramble. Carrie, still recovering from tooth removal, had biscuits and gravy, and was actually able to eat about half of it.
After we came home the two of us spent the entire afternoon making cookies and straightening up. We made three or four types of cookies. Let's see:
In the morning, as is tradition, Carrie & I joined my family for a breakfast out on the town. This year, as it has been for many years past, we all went to The Village Inn in Federal Way. I had a chicken-fried steak scramble. Carrie, still recovering from tooth removal, had biscuits and gravy, and was actually able to eat about half of it.
After we came home the two of us spent the entire afternoon making cookies and straightening up. We made three or four types of cookies. Let's see:
- Chocolate Crinkles
- Mint Meltaways
- Lemon Squares
So only three. But we'd already made Candy Cane Cookies and Thumbprint Cookies, so we didn't do too badly.
Just after 4:00-ish the Tarbet clan came over (Linnea, JC, and Lena). We gave Lena her presents (a Cinderella doll, a Hello Kitty bath set, and a feather boa). Carrie gave Linnea a very pretty necklace, and the two families exchanged some cookies.
For dinner we went, as is tradition, to Mark & Viki's to join that entire family for New Year's Eve dinner. I met Missy's boyfriend, who also recently had a part of his digestive track removed. I gave him my card because he said his website sucked (he designes custom cabinets).
Mark is a French-Canadian and a very good chef. He printed off little menu cards and I managed to steal one. Here is what was on it (which is also what we ate):
First Course
- Soupe au pois:
- This was pea soup with crab meat in it. It's the only pea soup I've ever eaten that I've liked at all. And I like it quite a bit, so that's quite a feat.
Second Course
- Rôti de Porc Etoufée:
- Roasted pork tenderloin wrapped around apples and rosemary. Tender and delicious.
- Tortièrre:
- A beef pie that is gloriously saucy and good.
- Tarte au pèche:
- This is the fish equivalent of Tortièrre, with a lovely white sauce. Although "pèche" also means "sin" in French, so you could say this is sinfully good.
- Harocôts enrobée:
- Green beans wrapped with bacon. Man-o-man that's good stuffs.
- Pommes de terre écraser:
- Mashed potatoes (though "écraser" could mean "crushed" as well)
- Rutabegas écraser:
- Mashed rutebegas.
Viki made dessert, which was:
- Upside-down Pumpkin Pecan Bread Pudding:
- Made with croissants as the bread. It was very good, but Carrie & I were both so full that we didn't eat very much. Also, it was full of nuts, which I still am having a hard time handling. Soon, though...
Then it was on to the Fourth Family dealy, which was stuffing stockings over at the Hamm's residence. We didn't stay for too long there, due to Carrie's teef (or lack thereof) hurting.
We got home and got setup for bed, and Carrie & I opened one present each (ones that we gave each other). I gave her Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company. Carrie gave me the complete Freaks & Geeks.
We finally were able to catch 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on the Family Channel. Even though it was the one that edited out the whole "There's More to the World than Meets the Eye" song, it was still good to see.
posted by Christopher at 10:17 AM
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Sunday, December 25, 2005
Christmas 2005
posted by Christopher at 7:59 AM
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Saturday, December 24, 2005
Mein Gott in Himmel! Meine Zähne sind herausgekommen!
It's Christmas Eve! It's Christmas Eve! It's time for scares! It's time for screams!
Yesterday (Friday) morning we got up at a rather early hour and went to the dentist so Carrie could have five teeth removed via dental surgery. The operation took less than an hour and everything went just fine. Carrie is fine! Everyone stop worrying! She was up and about within a couple of hours of getting home.
Well, it took a while for her tongue to completely un-numb, but after that she was fine. The pain medicine made her routinely drowsy, though. I went to Bartell's and bought her some chocolate milk and ice cream, and picked up that pain medicine prescription too. I finished wrapping everything, and she helped me by decorating. She's way better at decorating gifts than I am, but I'm way better at wrapping than she is, so we make a good team.
I went to Fred Meyer later on and bought some stuff like milk and cake flour and more Ibuprofen for her.
Around dinnertime Florentine stopped by to store some presents. We have to remember to bring them over to their house tomorrow, so don't forget to remind us, okay!?
I made bacon-wrapped turkey medallion for dinner. Carrie had nyocci because it's nice and soft. And then she basically went to sleep for the night. She got up and stirred a couple of times but for the most part she was out. So I finished up a couple of final present things and washed many a dish before I joined her.
Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!
Yesterday (Friday) morning we got up at a rather early hour and went to the dentist so Carrie could have five teeth removed via dental surgery. The operation took less than an hour and everything went just fine. Carrie is fine! Everyone stop worrying! She was up and about within a couple of hours of getting home.
Well, it took a while for her tongue to completely un-numb, but after that she was fine. The pain medicine made her routinely drowsy, though. I went to Bartell's and bought her some chocolate milk and ice cream, and picked up that pain medicine prescription too. I finished wrapping everything, and she helped me by decorating. She's way better at decorating gifts than I am, but I'm way better at wrapping than she is, so we make a good team.
I went to Fred Meyer later on and bought some stuff like milk and cake flour and more Ibuprofen for her.
Around dinnertime Florentine stopped by to store some presents. We have to remember to bring them over to their house tomorrow, so don't forget to remind us, okay!?
I made bacon-wrapped turkey medallion for dinner. Carrie had nyocci because it's nice and soft. And then she basically went to sleep for the night. She got up and stirred a couple of times but for the most part she was out. So I finished up a couple of final present things and washed many a dish before I joined her.
Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!
posted by Christopher at 9:04 AM
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Friday, December 23, 2005
Stocking Stuffers
Wednesday night Carrie had some trouble falling asleep. When I came to bed I fell almost instantly asleep. She eventually fell asleep, only to have me wake her up by telling her, "I couldn't finish it because I'm cookies!"
She wasn't very happy about being woken up for that.
I still have no idea what I was talking about. I was obviously asleep (or just this side of it) and apparently dreaming that I was cookies. And had a task I couldn't complete because of my state of being.
Anyway. Carrie had a split-shift yesterday (Thursday). In the morning I went to a couple of places and bought all of the stocking stuffers that I had yet to get for her.
I picked her up from work at noon and we went up to Southcenter. Which has a different name now that I can't remember. We expected that it might take some time to get what we were looking for; we might have to go through several stores and dig through racks and racks of stuff.
We got it all in one stop at one store. It was pretty awesome. We got home in plenty of time for Carrie to wrap all my presents while I was banished to the office here so I couldn't sneek a peak.
While Carrie was teaching class in the evening I had a brief chat with Taisha over the phone. She's coming to my family's house for Christmas dinner, which I think is much better than spending it alone in her apartment with Oscar (her dog) as has been her custom the last couple of years. Jason & Alexa are coming as well, so there'll be nine people around the table come dinnertime. Yikes!
I wrapped all of Carrie's presents and stuffed her stocking. Hey, let me ask you something: in your family, are your stocking stuffers wrapped? Because they sure are in Carrie's! Growing up in my family the stockings were never that big of a deal; they were kind of like getting an early taste of opening things before breakfast (presents were opened after breakfast). In our foot-long stockings we would get some candy, an ornament, blank tapes (back when such things still existed), oranges, maybe some assorted cheese, and that was it.
Carrie's family not only individually wraps every single thing in the stockings, but they get three-foot stockings and still can't fit everything into them. There are huge mounds of tiny individually-wrapped stocking stuffers surrounding their stockings.
I'm not saying that one way or the other is inherently better. I'm just saying that even after eight Christmasses connected to Carrie I'm still just not used to such an emphasis being placed on stockings.
She wasn't very happy about being woken up for that.
I still have no idea what I was talking about. I was obviously asleep (or just this side of it) and apparently dreaming that I was cookies. And had a task I couldn't complete because of my state of being.
Anyway. Carrie had a split-shift yesterday (Thursday). In the morning I went to a couple of places and bought all of the stocking stuffers that I had yet to get for her.
I picked her up from work at noon and we went up to Southcenter. Which has a different name now that I can't remember. We expected that it might take some time to get what we were looking for; we might have to go through several stores and dig through racks and racks of stuff.
We got it all in one stop at one store. It was pretty awesome. We got home in plenty of time for Carrie to wrap all my presents while I was banished to the office here so I couldn't sneek a peak.
While Carrie was teaching class in the evening I had a brief chat with Taisha over the phone. She's coming to my family's house for Christmas dinner, which I think is much better than spending it alone in her apartment with Oscar (her dog) as has been her custom the last couple of years. Jason & Alexa are coming as well, so there'll be nine people around the table come dinnertime. Yikes!
I wrapped all of Carrie's presents and stuffed her stocking. Hey, let me ask you something: in your family, are your stocking stuffers wrapped? Because they sure are in Carrie's! Growing up in my family the stockings were never that big of a deal; they were kind of like getting an early taste of opening things before breakfast (presents were opened after breakfast). In our foot-long stockings we would get some candy, an ornament, blank tapes (back when such things still existed), oranges, maybe some assorted cheese, and that was it.
Carrie's family not only individually wraps every single thing in the stockings, but they get three-foot stockings and still can't fit everything into them. There are huge mounds of tiny individually-wrapped stocking stuffers surrounding their stockings.
I'm not saying that one way or the other is inherently better. I'm just saying that even after eight Christmasses connected to Carrie I'm still just not used to such an emphasis being placed on stockings.
posted by Christopher at 10:57 AM
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Thursday, December 22, 2005
The All-Red Candy Cane Cookie
Yesterday (Wednesday) I spent basically the whole day getting the new Bead Factory Workshop schedule online. Truly, it took me pretty much from 10:00 in the AM to 3:30 in the PM. I hadn't expected to get it done until 4:00. I got it done a half hour early! I sent an email to the ladies in the back telling them how much I kicked ASS.
When I dropped Carrie off in the morning I also ran into Brandy, who sadly is pretty sick. She said that she really liked the way her website looked, but wondered if the center box area could look more velvety? I said I could probably manage that.
I did take a break from BF Workshop work to pick Carrie up from work and have lunch with her here (cheese enchiladas).
When I picked her up from work the plan was to go home and make candy cane cookies. But Carrie was so tired that she really needed to take a bit of a nap. So I made the dough entirely on my own. I'm getting pretty good at that. Carrie woke up and helped me shape the dough into candy cane shapes and we baked one batch of them.
They turned out very nicely. They have a nice, subtle mint flavor to them, and they're not too sweet.
After making that first batch we drove down to Point Defiance to celebrate Florentine's Birthday Dinner at Anthony's Home Port. Oddly enough, even though they had lobter tail, it wasn't on the menu. Huh. We gave her her presents (a snowman tin full of Lindor chocolates; a penguin mug; a red-and-black bracelet) and all ate yommy foodstuffs. She had lobster tail, of course. Carrie had a crab fetuccini. I had London broil (yes, I went to a seafood restaurant and had beef—don't judge me). Florentine & I split a bottle of wine; Carrie & Jim had beers. Grandma K didn't have any hooch.
After dinner we came back here and cooked up the rest of the candy cane cookies. For some reason there was a little bit more red dough than white dough, so the last candy cane we made came out all red. If you look really closely at the photo up there (click it for a larger version) you can probably see it.
When I dropped Carrie off in the morning I also ran into Brandy, who sadly is pretty sick. She said that she really liked the way her website looked, but wondered if the center box area could look more velvety? I said I could probably manage that.
I did take a break from BF Workshop work to pick Carrie up from work and have lunch with her here (cheese enchiladas).
When I picked her up from work the plan was to go home and make candy cane cookies. But Carrie was so tired that she really needed to take a bit of a nap. So I made the dough entirely on my own. I'm getting pretty good at that. Carrie woke up and helped me shape the dough into candy cane shapes and we baked one batch of them.
They turned out very nicely. They have a nice, subtle mint flavor to them, and they're not too sweet.
After making that first batch we drove down to Point Defiance to celebrate Florentine's Birthday Dinner at Anthony's Home Port. Oddly enough, even though they had lobter tail, it wasn't on the menu. Huh. We gave her her presents (a snowman tin full of Lindor chocolates; a penguin mug; a red-and-black bracelet) and all ate yommy foodstuffs. She had lobster tail, of course. Carrie had a crab fetuccini. I had London broil (yes, I went to a seafood restaurant and had beef—don't judge me). Florentine & I split a bottle of wine; Carrie & Jim had beers. Grandma K didn't have any hooch.
After dinner we came back here and cooked up the rest of the candy cane cookies. For some reason there was a little bit more red dough than white dough, so the last candy cane we made came out all red. If you look really closely at the photo up there (click it for a larger version) you can probably see it.
posted by Christopher at 8:21 AM
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005
The Evolution of Santa
A rather funny article, courtesy of I-Mockery.com
posted by Christopher at 10:19 AM
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Scuzzbucket
I never did end up showering yesterday (Tuesday), so I kinda felt like a scuzzbucket all day. But that's okay, because I didn't leave the house except to pick up or drop off Carrie. And also to get her coffee in the morning, but it's okay to be a little scuzzy at Starbucks; they kind of expect it that early in the morning.
I spent the rest of the day working on the new Bead Factory Workshop schedule. I also updated my links by adding the "Cool People Who Have Websites" section, which is blogs/portfolios of people I've never met, but still like to visit. I also did a little bit of re-organizing.
Gwyn of GwynUnlimited.com emailed me asking for my RSS feed. It got me thinking about RSS, so I went and downloaded Firefox RSS plugin called "Fizzle." It's kinda cool because now I can see if a site has been updated without having to actually visit it.
I mostly ate leftovers all day: the rest of my Macaroni Wedge, the rest of my Italian Scramble, etc. In the early evening Carrie went shopping (without me, so she could buy stuff for me), and I took that time to bake a big batch of Cat's thumbprint cookies. They're super easy and so darned tasty.
Carrie was out late—she didn't get back in until just after 10:00 PM. I worked on Bead Factory stuff some more and then found myself on Wikipedia looking up stuff about Space Elevators. Why? Because it's Wikipedia, and it does that to you.
I spent the rest of the day working on the new Bead Factory Workshop schedule. I also updated my links by adding the "Cool People Who Have Websites" section, which is blogs/portfolios of people I've never met, but still like to visit. I also did a little bit of re-organizing.
Gwyn of GwynUnlimited.com emailed me asking for my RSS feed. It got me thinking about RSS, so I went and downloaded Firefox RSS plugin called "Fizzle." It's kinda cool because now I can see if a site has been updated without having to actually visit it.
I mostly ate leftovers all day: the rest of my Macaroni Wedge, the rest of my Italian Scramble, etc. In the early evening Carrie went shopping (without me, so she could buy stuff for me), and I took that time to bake a big batch of Cat's thumbprint cookies. They're super easy and so darned tasty.
Carrie was out late—she didn't get back in until just after 10:00 PM. I worked on Bead Factory stuff some more and then found myself on Wikipedia looking up stuff about Space Elevators. Why? Because it's Wikipedia, and it does that to you.
posted by Christopher at 9:45 AM
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Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Station Wow
Last night (that would be Monday night) I had a very complicated natural-disaster dream. It had mostly to do with flooding, although I think it was at first caused by a supervolcano. Anyway, I was a youngish kid in this family that fled to a cabin on a mountain to get away from all the disasterish stuff. There was another woman there who was kinda the badguy because she couldn't be trusted. For some reason. I can't remember why.
But I do remember a really cool scene in which the camera watched from above as a big wave swept through downtown Seattle.
I also remember climbing trees on the top of the mountain, and gathering a lot of people in a big cafeteria up there to have a community meeting.
I also remember that despite the loss of some major cities the US economy kept on trying to go. The news kept on broadcasting and was talking about the stock exchange and stuff as if the whole disaster wasn't really all that bad. It was pretty funny.
But I do remember a really cool scene in which the camera watched from above as a big wave swept through downtown Seattle.
I also remember climbing trees on the top of the mountain, and gathering a lot of people in a big cafeteria up there to have a community meeting.
I also remember that despite the loss of some major cities the US economy kept on trying to go. The news kept on broadcasting and was talking about the stock exchange and stuff as if the whole disaster wasn't really all that bad. It was pretty funny.
*******
Um, anyway. About yesterday (Monday): I went and had breakfast with Brandy at the Hob Nob. I wanted a Polish skillet, but they were out of kielbasa, so I had the Italian skillet instead. The service there wasn't very good. Well, it wasn't actively bad, either; it was more like it was non-existant.
The two of us came back here and talked about her website, and I bought her a domain name and set her up with a Blogger account. That was my Christmas present for her. We're both very excited for her upcoming website:
Just about when we were finished and were watching Ghostbusters, Carrie called to tell me to come pick her up. Not just for lunch; she was done for the day at only 1:00-ish. So we went and picked her up, then went and dropped Brandy off at her car at the Hob Nob, then came home and took a nap.
In the late afternoon Carrie made some awexome cookies from a recipe given to her by Cat. They turned out pretty well, although the recipe did not make 100,000 cookies as Cat claimed.
In the evening we went Christmas shopping and finished up a whole bunch of people on our list. We went to Target, Borders, Cost Plus World Market, and Jo-Anne's. And we stopped on the way home at Metropolitan Market to get some dinner and also look for presents there. For dinner I chose the never-before-seen monstrosity known as the "Macaroni & Cheese Wedge." It was macaroni and cheese that had been pressed into the shape of a huge pie slice.
It was really quite delicious.
In the late evening I worked some more on Bead Factory stuff, then cranked out a preliminary design for Station Wow. If you'd really like, you can look at it here.
posted by Christopher at 8:52 AM
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Monday, December 19, 2005
Bead Factory Christmas Party 2005
Yesterday (Sunday) was the Bead Factory Christmas Party 2005! Woot!
During the day Carrie & I had planned on getting some shopping done, but neither of us felt at all like facing weekend crowds on the last weekend before Christmas. Now way, Josie. So instead we stayed home and cleaned the house something fierce, and wrapped all the presents we had. There are now presents under the tree and it looks pretty cheerful!
Around 7:00 people showed up: Brandy, Christine, and Lawrence. I showed Lawrence the office and his jaw dropped (literally) and he gasped (literally). He was especially enamoured with Unicron and the Army of Darkness figures. Carrie made us all white Russians. I had two, but they were much stronger than I had expected and hit me really hard all of a sudden. Whoops! But I was fine.
We then piled in a car and drove down to Primo Grill. To our surprise it was snowing ever so gently, although with a 0% chance of sticking on the ground.
The party was upstairs, and it was a lot of good. I had salmon to eat, which was vey tasty fish. During the gift exchange we once again ended up with a Heather Lovejoy original painting!
During the day Carrie & I had planned on getting some shopping done, but neither of us felt at all like facing weekend crowds on the last weekend before Christmas. Now way, Josie. So instead we stayed home and cleaned the house something fierce, and wrapped all the presents we had. There are now presents under the tree and it looks pretty cheerful!
Around 7:00 people showed up: Brandy, Christine, and Lawrence. I showed Lawrence the office and his jaw dropped (literally) and he gasped (literally). He was especially enamoured with Unicron and the Army of Darkness figures. Carrie made us all white Russians. I had two, but they were much stronger than I had expected and hit me really hard all of a sudden. Whoops! But I was fine.
We then piled in a car and drove down to Primo Grill. To our surprise it was snowing ever so gently, although with a 0% chance of sticking on the ground.
The party was upstairs, and it was a lot of good. I had salmon to eat, which was vey tasty fish. During the gift exchange we once again ended up with a Heather Lovejoy original painting!
I also snagged a Best Buy gift card, which can be put to use buying whatever I didn't get from my wish lists.
Earlier in the day Carrie had gone on iTunes and downloaded a whole mess of songs that she burnt onto a CD for to dance. During the last hour of the party we put it on and there was much dancing. Mostly by the women. And Lawrence. And I got up there sometimes.
Eventually we were driven back to our house by Travis, although many people just walked back to our house to pick up their cars.
posted by Christopher at 9:07 AM
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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Just How Awesome I Am
Yesterday (Saturday) I made presents for the folks at Fools Play. I had already made presents for Taisha and Sandy & Mathias. So I made presents for Ed, Geoff, and Leah. I put pictures of them in my Portfolio, so go there to check them out. Now! Except for Ed's present, which was two pint glasses upon which I etched hideous robot faces.
Carrie made an anklet by way of internet order for Karla and took it down there for her. She also did a handful of errands.
Around 5:15 Viki dropped Trevor off and took Carrie away. Trevor & I went down to Fools Play while Carrie went with the Lareau's to dinner at Red Robin, then went and saw Steph's dance show, then went to Asado to have drinks for Katie's birthday.
The show was really fun. The Santa's Lap format is always a lot of fun. But it ran really, really long. So afterwards I had to just hand out my presents and then take off in order to get Trevor back up to T-Town before midnightish.
We went to Asado where everyone was still celebrating good times. I got to see Katie for a few seconds before she left. Carrie let me eat the rest of her calamari (though I didn't finish it). Trevor was practically asleep on his feet by this time.
Anyway, go check out the Portfolio to see just how awsome I am.
Carrie made an anklet by way of internet order for Karla and took it down there for her. She also did a handful of errands.
Around 5:15 Viki dropped Trevor off and took Carrie away. Trevor & I went down to Fools Play while Carrie went with the Lareau's to dinner at Red Robin, then went and saw Steph's dance show, then went to Asado to have drinks for Katie's birthday.
The show was really fun. The Santa's Lap format is always a lot of fun. But it ran really, really long. So afterwards I had to just hand out my presents and then take off in order to get Trevor back up to T-Town before midnightish.
We went to Asado where everyone was still celebrating good times. I got to see Katie for a few seconds before she left. Carrie let me eat the rest of her calamari (though I didn't finish it). Trevor was practically asleep on his feet by this time.
Anyway, go check out the Portfolio to see just how awsome I am.
posted by Christopher at 8:44 AM
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Saturday, December 17, 2005
Turn On the Power of Shining Lights!
Prologue: On Tuesday when I went down to Olympia and picked up Brandy's Car, her mom gave me the CD changer for that car. I put it in my coat so I wouldn't forget it in the house. Unfortunately I forgot to ever take it out of my coat.
Present: Brandy came home late Thursday. Yesterday (Friday) morning she called me (I missed the first call, then called her back, then she called me back while I was in the shower, and then I finally got ahold of her when I got out of the shower) asking if I had it. Yes, of course I did!
She was going to the store, so I drove down there to meet her and give her the CD changer. We then went to Gateway and talked and ate and had a good time. I hadn't seen her for three months, so that was really nice. After she drove me back to the store I walked with Carrie to E-9 where we had lunch.
Yeah, that's right, bucko. I had TWO lunches yesterday! Take that! I figure it's okay that I had two lunches seeing as how I completely forgot to eat breakfast.
Umm... what else? I came home and worked on both the Precious Maille and Chris Fantz Photography websites. Carrie & I had been invited to join Brandy, Geoff, and the Kids at ZooLights in the evening. Carrie couldn't because last night was the only night she had to do a lot of errand stuff (like look for new clothes for the Christmas Party on Sunday). But I got enough work done in the afternoon where I was able to take the time to go to ZooLights.
Geoff swung by and picked me up in his truck because Brandy was going to have a car full of kids and not enough room for much else. So Geoff & I get to ZooLights about 15 minutes late because he came straight from Seattle to my house and there were traffic woes on the way. There weren't traffic woes on the way to ZooLights, though. On the way I sang Bob's version of O Holy Night, and Geoff sang Trevor Peach's version of I Saw Three Ships. We get to the zoo, go inside and call Brandy to see where they are.
They ain't there yet.
Geoff & I go and wait in the cafe building there for a little bit until they show up. Heather & Chris were also supposed to meet us there, but they ain't showed up yet neither. So we wait outside in that big globe thing for a bit until they show up. Then we all three start a-walking around the ZooLights, which was different this year. It seemed to be less themed and more randomly-placed light stuff than usual. Also, a big chunk of the park was barricaded up so you couldn't get to it. Also, there were kids in shorts doing gymnastics while freezing on the big auditorium stage thing.
Heather & Chris left a little early to go see Steph's dance thing (pick up the Weekly Volcano to see an article on it with a big photo of her) while the rest of us soon realized that we had pretty much seen everything.
We all drove up to the Starbucks off of 26th where the kids got hotto chocolatto and Trevor played Animal Crossing: Wild World and showed me some of the new features. Looks cool. Hope I get it for Chrissymas.
Geoff then drove me home, and Carrie called me shortly thereafter. She was on her way back from errand-land (specifically, the SuperMall). She pulled up to the house and I rushed out to the car and we went to dinner at The Parkway, where I had a barbeque beef sammitch and a pear cider.
After dinner we went home and watched Numb3rs in bed.
Present: Brandy came home late Thursday. Yesterday (Friday) morning she called me (I missed the first call, then called her back, then she called me back while I was in the shower, and then I finally got ahold of her when I got out of the shower) asking if I had it. Yes, of course I did!
She was going to the store, so I drove down there to meet her and give her the CD changer. We then went to Gateway and talked and ate and had a good time. I hadn't seen her for three months, so that was really nice. After she drove me back to the store I walked with Carrie to E-9 where we had lunch.
Yeah, that's right, bucko. I had TWO lunches yesterday! Take that! I figure it's okay that I had two lunches seeing as how I completely forgot to eat breakfast.
Umm... what else? I came home and worked on both the Precious Maille and Chris Fantz Photography websites. Carrie & I had been invited to join Brandy, Geoff, and the Kids at ZooLights in the evening. Carrie couldn't because last night was the only night she had to do a lot of errand stuff (like look for new clothes for the Christmas Party on Sunday). But I got enough work done in the afternoon where I was able to take the time to go to ZooLights.
Geoff swung by and picked me up in his truck because Brandy was going to have a car full of kids and not enough room for much else. So Geoff & I get to ZooLights about 15 minutes late because he came straight from Seattle to my house and there were traffic woes on the way. There weren't traffic woes on the way to ZooLights, though. On the way I sang Bob's version of O Holy Night, and Geoff sang Trevor Peach's version of I Saw Three Ships. We get to the zoo, go inside and call Brandy to see where they are.
They ain't there yet.
Geoff & I go and wait in the cafe building there for a little bit until they show up. Heather & Chris were also supposed to meet us there, but they ain't showed up yet neither. So we wait outside in that big globe thing for a bit until they show up. Then we all three start a-walking around the ZooLights, which was different this year. It seemed to be less themed and more randomly-placed light stuff than usual. Also, a big chunk of the park was barricaded up so you couldn't get to it. Also, there were kids in shorts doing gymnastics while freezing on the big auditorium stage thing.
Heather & Chris left a little early to go see Steph's dance thing (pick up the Weekly Volcano to see an article on it with a big photo of her) while the rest of us soon realized that we had pretty much seen everything.
We all drove up to the Starbucks off of 26th where the kids got hotto chocolatto and Trevor played Animal Crossing: Wild World and showed me some of the new features. Looks cool. Hope I get it for Chrissymas.
Geoff then drove me home, and Carrie called me shortly thereafter. She was on her way back from errand-land (specifically, the SuperMall). She pulled up to the house and I rushed out to the car and we went to dinner at The Parkway, where I had a barbeque beef sammitch and a pear cider.
After dinner we went home and watched Numb3rs in bed.
posted by Christopher at 8:55 AM
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Friday, December 16, 2005
Cthulhu Carols
posted by Christopher at 9:20 AM
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Thursday, December 15, 2005
Early Christmas 2005
Yesterday (Wednesday) morning after dropping Carrie off at work I drove to the mall so I could exchange Melissa's busted tank top for an un-broken one. I then came back and started wrapping gifts, for yesterday was Early Christmas.
I promised that I would show you these today, so here are the cards that I made for the kids (click a pic for a closeup):
I promised that I would show you these today, so here are the cards that I made for the kids (click a pic for a closeup):
I'm a funny guy!
Let's see if'n I can umember what all was a-gotten for peeps by we.
- Trevor: The Goonies & Billy Madison
- Julian: Animal Crossing: Wild World
- Sophia: a Roxy shirt, a home-made necklace, and home-made bracelet
- Melissa: that un-broken purplish tank top from Macy's, a black sweater thing to wear over it, and a long antiqued necklace to go with it.
- Travis: Real Ultimate Power and Winter Beer Assortment from Cost Plus.
- Mark: a gift certificate to Asado
- Viki: an outfit from Nordstroms* and a home-made necklace
After I took Carrie back to the store after lunch I drove out to the theater to buy movie tickets. Then on the way back home I called to see if Linnea was home so I could drop off the carseat (we were going to need the whole backseat for the kids). She was, so I stopped by there and hung out with her and Lena for a while. Lena had a "kitty" in a box. The box was about two inches by two inches by one inch.
Carrie got off work at 3:00 and we did some last-minute finishing touches to the wrapping before driving up to the kids' house and picking them up (and dropping off the presents). Then we drove back down to Tacoma (navigating through a traffic jam caused solely by rubbernecking) to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe at the theater near Target.
After the movie (which Julian stated would have been better if "the lion had just stayed dead) we went to Red Robin for din-dins. Julian had stuffed his face so full of popcorn at the movie that he didn't order any dinner, just a drink. And he nibbled on some other people's fries. This was fine with us; a bucket of popcorn at the movie theater was much cheaper than a meal at Red Robin.
Melissa & Travis showed up towards the end of din-dins, and we abandoned them there to eat while we went and got Krispy Kreme donuts. I sang an hilarious version of Little Drummer Boy to entertain everyone. I even included a spit-take just for Carrie.
We got back to the kids' house just as Mark & Viki were getting back from shopping. We waited a bit for Melissa & Travis to get there. While we waited we watched videos onDemand. There was a really funny Gorillaz one, and then one from Green Day that had like five minutes of talking before the music actually started. It was horribly boring.
Then it was time to open presents!
I got an Andorian action figure and a promise that another gift is coming as soon as Melissa is able to find it in her house. Carrie & I together got a gift certificate for Il Fiasco, and Carrie alone got a really cool custom-made soup cookbook from Melissa. She put a lot of work into that thang.
*Carrie bought the outfit, which she thought was perfect for Viki. Shortly thereafter she began wondering if the reason she thought it was so perfect was in fact that she had seen Viki already wearing it. This turned out not to be the case, but by the time Early Christmas rolled around she was thoroughly convinced that Viki already owned the outfit.
posted by Christopher at 8:38 AM
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Wednesday, December 14, 2005
No Bull
Yesterday (Tuesday) after I dropped Carrie off at work and got her a coffee and all that morning stuff like that, I drove up to Federal Way to get stuff for Early Christmas and also for the BF Christmas Party. Damn, I can't really say what, can I? That'd be spoling it!
Umm... I don't remember terribly much what happened during the actual day. I got Carrie for lunch, then after lunch I went to the bonk and deposited all of Carrie's checks. Then after work I picked up Carrie.
We ended up going out to El Toro with Chris & Cat, which was awesome. That place has got great food. And lots of it. Chris & Cat each got a meal that was served on a plate as big as a pizza dish. Seriously.
After dinner I was picked up by Geoff and driven down to Olympia (well, Lacey really) to Brandy's Mom's house so that I could drive her car back up to Tacoma so she'll have it when she comes home Thursday evening. That was fun, to hang out with Geoff.
That would be fun, to ride Ralph.
After that I wrapped some Early Christmas stuff and made cards for each of the kids. I'll try to remember to post those tomorrow.
Umm... I don't remember terribly much what happened during the actual day. I got Carrie for lunch, then after lunch I went to the bonk and deposited all of Carrie's checks. Then after work I picked up Carrie.
We ended up going out to El Toro with Chris & Cat, which was awesome. That place has got great food. And lots of it. Chris & Cat each got a meal that was served on a plate as big as a pizza dish. Seriously.
After dinner I was picked up by Geoff and driven down to Olympia (well, Lacey really) to Brandy's Mom's house so that I could drive her car back up to Tacoma so she'll have it when she comes home Thursday evening. That was fun, to hang out with Geoff.
That would be fun, to ride Ralph.
After that I wrapped some Early Christmas stuff and made cards for each of the kids. I'll try to remember to post those tomorrow.
posted by Christopher at 7:26 AM
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
No Spoilers!
Yesterday (Monday) Carrie took off from work due to the fact that she'd worked a full day teaching classes on Sunday.
It was a day for shopping.
First off we went to the ol' Bead Factory so carrie could ship out some packages to out-of-state peoples. From there we headed to Knapp's and had breakfast. I had a Monte Cristo omelette, and carrie had bennies with the ham on the side for me to eats. That place has pretty good food and it's really cheap compared to most any other place. Mine was about eight bucks, but that's just because it came with so much stuff.
From there we hit the mall, where we went shopping obviously. I can't say where we went or what we bought in case someone might be reading this.
Then we came home for lunch, which mostly consisted of me eating my leftovers. I made some Indian food for Carrie. Then while soap operas were on, she worked on other presents. I went to Michael's (the art store, not my brother's place) and bought, um, stuff.
Y'know, yesterday is really hard to write about without giving things away. I don't want this entry to contain spoilers!
Carrie's dad came by and dropped off an item that Florentine wants me to etch. Then around 3:00 Carrie & I headed back out for to do more shopping.
Anyway, around 6:15 we headed over to Fife to go to Sophie's holiday choir concert. Viki gave Carrie horrible directions on how to get to the school, so we drove around for a while on the north side of the freeway, where there are no street lights and everything is as dark as humanly possible. Finally I suggested we turn left at a light and we went down to the end of the street and found the school there. We were still on time.
It turned out to be a choir/drum concert. They had a tonne of African-style drums in a big circle on the stage, and the choir would do a song and then the drums would do three. Eventually at the end they did some together.
After the concert I drove Sophia back to her house and stole a cookie as payment for safely delivering her. Why couldn't Carrie or Viki or Mark take her back to their house? Because they had to jet down to Tacoma to have the BF managers' meeting with all the managers: Carrie, Christine, Steph, and Leilani (recently promoted to assistant floor manager).
I went home and read X-E's Christmas Countdown and watched an episode of Samurai Champloo and cooked a piece of beef wrapped around blue cheese. Tasty fish.
Carrie came home towards the end of rasslin' and remarked how some things were completely different but some things were exactly the same as always—like Triple H's ring entrance. By the way, he actually lost to Kane! I was shocked!
Anyway, we went to bed around 11:00-ish.
It was a day for shopping.
First off we went to the ol' Bead Factory so carrie could ship out some packages to out-of-state peoples. From there we headed to Knapp's and had breakfast. I had a Monte Cristo omelette, and carrie had bennies with the ham on the side for me to eats. That place has pretty good food and it's really cheap compared to most any other place. Mine was about eight bucks, but that's just because it came with so much stuff.
From there we hit the mall, where we went shopping obviously. I can't say where we went or what we bought in case someone might be reading this.
Then we came home for lunch, which mostly consisted of me eating my leftovers. I made some Indian food for Carrie. Then while soap operas were on, she worked on other presents. I went to Michael's (the art store, not my brother's place) and bought, um, stuff.
Y'know, yesterday is really hard to write about without giving things away. I don't want this entry to contain spoilers!
Carrie's dad came by and dropped off an item that Florentine wants me to etch. Then around 3:00 Carrie & I headed back out for to do more shopping.
Anyway, around 6:15 we headed over to Fife to go to Sophie's holiday choir concert. Viki gave Carrie horrible directions on how to get to the school, so we drove around for a while on the north side of the freeway, where there are no street lights and everything is as dark as humanly possible. Finally I suggested we turn left at a light and we went down to the end of the street and found the school there. We were still on time.
It turned out to be a choir/drum concert. They had a tonne of African-style drums in a big circle on the stage, and the choir would do a song and then the drums would do three. Eventually at the end they did some together.
After the concert I drove Sophia back to her house and stole a cookie as payment for safely delivering her. Why couldn't Carrie or Viki or Mark take her back to their house? Because they had to jet down to Tacoma to have the BF managers' meeting with all the managers: Carrie, Christine, Steph, and Leilani (recently promoted to assistant floor manager).
I went home and read X-E's Christmas Countdown and watched an episode of Samurai Champloo and cooked a piece of beef wrapped around blue cheese. Tasty fish.
Carrie came home towards the end of rasslin' and remarked how some things were completely different but some things were exactly the same as always—like Triple H's ring entrance. By the way, he actually lost to Kane! I was shocked!
Anyway, we went to bed around 11:00-ish.
posted by Christopher at 7:56 AM
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Monday, December 12, 2005
Annual Lazy Practice
Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie had to teach two classes back-to-back (well, with a lunch break betwixt them). I was left to clean the house before practice. This was to be the last Fools Play practice of the year.
Ed had said that he would be able to actually show up, but a classmate of his boned out on some responsibility and Ed had to pick up the slack, so it turned out he couldn't. And what with Geoffs doing Nutcracker, it ended up being just Me, Mike, and Taisha. So instead of actually practicing, we ended up going with what has unofficially become a yearly tradition: the final practice of the year ends up being a lazy practice.
In the past we've gone and hung out at The Harvester above Stadium Video. Or just hung out in general. Yesterday we made paper chains, listened to some EVP on the TAPS website, and watched a documentary about Fred Rogers.
That's a pretty f**king inspiring guy. Yes, Mister Rogers himself (or "misterogers" as he was known in the beginning). It showed the whole speech he gave in front of congress when Nixon, being a Republican, wanted to cut the PBS budget in half. At the end of the speech he recited the lyrics to one of his songs, and the senator in charge of the hearing said, "Well, I think that's just wonderful. You may have just made twenty million dollars."
God damn. Mister Rogers wrote a $20,000,000 song.
Also really f**king incredible was the musical director of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood. Did you know that there was a jazz trio live in the studio during every episode of Mister Rogers, and they performed all the music live, and improvised most of it (except for the songs)?
I didn't. Until yesterday, that is! Whoa!
Ed had said that he would be able to actually show up, but a classmate of his boned out on some responsibility and Ed had to pick up the slack, so it turned out he couldn't. And what with Geoffs doing Nutcracker, it ended up being just Me, Mike, and Taisha. So instead of actually practicing, we ended up going with what has unofficially become a yearly tradition: the final practice of the year ends up being a lazy practice.
In the past we've gone and hung out at The Harvester above Stadium Video. Or just hung out in general. Yesterday we made paper chains, listened to some EVP on the TAPS website, and watched a documentary about Fred Rogers.
That's a pretty f**king inspiring guy. Yes, Mister Rogers himself (or "misterogers" as he was known in the beginning). It showed the whole speech he gave in front of congress when Nixon, being a Republican, wanted to cut the PBS budget in half. At the end of the speech he recited the lyrics to one of his songs, and the senator in charge of the hearing said, "Well, I think that's just wonderful. You may have just made twenty million dollars."
God damn. Mister Rogers wrote a $20,000,000 song.
Also really f**king incredible was the musical director of Mister Rogers's Neighborhood. Did you know that there was a jazz trio live in the studio during every episode of Mister Rogers, and they performed all the music live, and improvised most of it (except for the songs)?
I didn't. Until yesterday, that is! Whoa!
posted by Christopher at 8:49 AM
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Sunday, December 11, 2005
Lena hat uns geholfen, unseren Weihnachtsbaum zu dekorieren
Yesterday (Saturday) was Quite a Day.
Lena was dropped off at our house at 8:45 AM while I was finishing up a load of dishes. I should say a sick Lena. She had a sniffle and a cough, which meant a lot of snot on her face at times. We proceeded to run errands with her. Let's see if'n I can recall everything.
First off we went to Metropolitan Market to buy stuff for later baking. And also Chicken in a Biscuit crackers for later eating. Then we drove to Chris & Cat's, and followed Chris in his truck out to that tree farm off of Waller Road that we had seen the day before. We found two really good trees about the same height that were right next to each other. Chris sawed them both down and I took one and he took the other. We loaded them in his truck and we drove to our house. He drove to his house to unload his tree, then came over here with ours, gave the stem a fresh cut, and set it up in the stand for us. He's a real stand-up kind of guy, eh?
Lena then helped us decorate the tree, which was rather cute.
After tree fun we went to Cost Plus World Market and bought some stuff. I bought my present for the Bead Factory Christmas Party next week. Carrie bought stocking stuffers for people. A crazy couple of ladies mistook Lena for Carrie's daughter and tried to talk to her, which of course made her shut down completely.
Then we came back home and Linnea came over for lunch before going back to work. Then Carrie, Lena, & I went to Target. Right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But we didn't really find anything we were looking for there. So then we went to Fred Meyer's. I went to electronics and picked up A Charlie Brown Christmas while Carrie went looking for other things. We met in the drinks aisle, where I picked up a 1-litre Coke so that I'd have caffiene to keep me awake on the drive down to Fools Play.
We came back home and put on Charlie Brown Christmas, and Lena & I promptly fell asleep. I woke up (or Carrie woke me up) shortly before 5:00, and as I was getting ready for Fools Play, Linnea stopped by and took away the still-sleeping Lena. I quickly got ready and took the women (heaters) down to Fools Play.
We performed our Rankin/Bass parodies. The first one ended up being based on the 12 days of Christmas, and was about a boy trying to woo a mute girl who lived in a cabin in the woods. The Mayor needed a virgin's blood to continue to reign, and the boy was a virgin, so he sent his two henchmen, Meeps & Mole, to screw up the boy's attempts to win the girl and then hawmp her. The henchmen eventually kidnapped the girl and took her to the forbidden castle of the giant crab monster, who hated Christmas.
Anyway, it ended well... enough.
The second one was The Life & Adventures of Ronald MacDonald. It ended with Ronald stealing the Burger King's schtick and fighting Mac Tonight.
It was a very funny show, and the audience was pretty packed.
Afterwards I went out to Red Robin because Sandy & Mathias came down for the show and I haven't seen them very much recently. Also because Leah bought me a burger.
I came home and the house was dark but the Christmas tree lights were on.
It was very pretty.
Lena was dropped off at our house at 8:45 AM while I was finishing up a load of dishes. I should say a sick Lena. She had a sniffle and a cough, which meant a lot of snot on her face at times. We proceeded to run errands with her. Let's see if'n I can recall everything.
First off we went to Metropolitan Market to buy stuff for later baking. And also Chicken in a Biscuit crackers for later eating. Then we drove to Chris & Cat's, and followed Chris in his truck out to that tree farm off of Waller Road that we had seen the day before. We found two really good trees about the same height that were right next to each other. Chris sawed them both down and I took one and he took the other. We loaded them in his truck and we drove to our house. He drove to his house to unload his tree, then came over here with ours, gave the stem a fresh cut, and set it up in the stand for us. He's a real stand-up kind of guy, eh?
Lena then helped us decorate the tree, which was rather cute.
After tree fun we went to Cost Plus World Market and bought some stuff. I bought my present for the Bead Factory Christmas Party next week. Carrie bought stocking stuffers for people. A crazy couple of ladies mistook Lena for Carrie's daughter and tried to talk to her, which of course made her shut down completely.
Then we came back home and Linnea came over for lunch before going back to work. Then Carrie, Lena, & I went to Target. Right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure. But we didn't really find anything we were looking for there. So then we went to Fred Meyer's. I went to electronics and picked up A Charlie Brown Christmas while Carrie went looking for other things. We met in the drinks aisle, where I picked up a 1-litre Coke so that I'd have caffiene to keep me awake on the drive down to Fools Play.
We came back home and put on Charlie Brown Christmas, and Lena & I promptly fell asleep. I woke up (or Carrie woke me up) shortly before 5:00, and as I was getting ready for Fools Play, Linnea stopped by and took away the still-sleeping Lena. I quickly got ready and took the women (heaters) down to Fools Play.
We performed our Rankin/Bass parodies. The first one ended up being based on the 12 days of Christmas, and was about a boy trying to woo a mute girl who lived in a cabin in the woods. The Mayor needed a virgin's blood to continue to reign, and the boy was a virgin, so he sent his two henchmen, Meeps & Mole, to screw up the boy's attempts to win the girl and then hawmp her. The henchmen eventually kidnapped the girl and took her to the forbidden castle of the giant crab monster, who hated Christmas.
Anyway, it ended well... enough.
The second one was The Life & Adventures of Ronald MacDonald. It ended with Ronald stealing the Burger King's schtick and fighting Mac Tonight.
It was a very funny show, and the audience was pretty packed.
Afterwards I went out to Red Robin because Sandy & Mathias came down for the show and I haven't seen them very much recently. Also because Leah bought me a burger.
I came home and the house was dark but the Christmas tree lights were on.
It was very pretty.
posted by Christopher at 11:31 AM
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Saturday, December 10, 2005
Roundabout Tree
Yesterday (Friday) Linnea & Lena came over so Linnea could look up Swedish baby names on teh intarweb. She's leaning towards Eva or Klara right now. They're both the pretties.
Carrie didn't get to take a break until after 2:00 PM, so after I took her back she didn't have to stay back for long. But while she was breaking she tagged some new necklaces, so after I dropped her off I dropped the necklaces off at Ever After. Then I swung by Stadium Thriftway and picked up some beer and a couple of limes. I brought these (as well as marguerita mix and tequila) along with me when I picked Carrie up from work.
I drove us straight to Chris & Cat's house, where Chris & Heather were waiting for us. Three of the four Chrises in the same place! But not four, of course... Anyway, Chris & Cat piled in his truck, and Carrie & I went in Chris & Heather's car and we followed them in search of the Christmas tree lot to which we went last year. But we ended up going the most roundabout way possible, and when we got to the right area we didn't see any signs. So we decided to drive up Waller Road, and we spotted a sign there, but the place had closed at 4:00 PM. It was considerably after 4:00 by this time.
So we all went back to Chris & Cat's house, where Chris taught me how to play Def Jam Fight for New York. I created a character who looked startingly like me (he was even wearing the same shirt I was wearing at the time). Carrie absolutely loved it when the characters would Hulk-out. She really liked the dramatic slow-mo and stuff; she would always start giggling when it happened. Anyway, I got the crap kicked outta me by people like Omar Epps, Henry Rollins, and Flava Flav.
Cat & Heather made enchiladas for din-dins, which we all ate because they were really freakin' good. And there were also margueritas, which were also plenny good.
At about 8:30 we left the party and stopped by Best Buy so Carrie could pick up a present for her bruddah.
Carrie didn't get to take a break until after 2:00 PM, so after I took her back she didn't have to stay back for long. But while she was breaking she tagged some new necklaces, so after I dropped her off I dropped the necklaces off at Ever After. Then I swung by Stadium Thriftway and picked up some beer and a couple of limes. I brought these (as well as marguerita mix and tequila) along with me when I picked Carrie up from work.
I drove us straight to Chris & Cat's house, where Chris & Heather were waiting for us. Three of the four Chrises in the same place! But not four, of course... Anyway, Chris & Cat piled in his truck, and Carrie & I went in Chris & Heather's car and we followed them in search of the Christmas tree lot to which we went last year. But we ended up going the most roundabout way possible, and when we got to the right area we didn't see any signs. So we decided to drive up Waller Road, and we spotted a sign there, but the place had closed at 4:00 PM. It was considerably after 4:00 by this time.
So we all went back to Chris & Cat's house, where Chris taught me how to play Def Jam Fight for New York. I created a character who looked startingly like me (he was even wearing the same shirt I was wearing at the time). Carrie absolutely loved it when the characters would Hulk-out. She really liked the dramatic slow-mo and stuff; she would always start giggling when it happened. Anyway, I got the crap kicked outta me by people like Omar Epps, Henry Rollins, and Flava Flav.
Cat & Heather made enchiladas for din-dins, which we all ate because they were really freakin' good. And there were also margueritas, which were also plenny good.
At about 8:30 we left the party and stopped by Best Buy so Carrie could pick up a present for her bruddah.
posted by Christopher at 7:34 AM
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Thursday, December 08, 2005
Poor Timing
Yesterday (Thursday) I had four tasks to perform:
- Call Chimney Sweepers
- Buy stamps for Holiday Cards
- Cancel Carrie's teeth-cleaning appointment
- Bring in the boxes of Christmas decorations from the garage
Seems easy enough, correcto?
We'll see.
I completed the first task relatively easy, but with no success. I called, but nobody answered, so I left a message for them to call me back. But I still did my part, so case closed!
1. Call Chimney Sweepers
I picked up Carrie for lunch around 2:00. Leilani stopped by at that time to drop off her handout for her upcoming Beaded Gifts class. Carrie got of work at 4:00, so by the time I took her back I had about an hour to complete the other three tasks. I stopped by Gretchen's Dad's store to buy stamps, but the post office in the store did not accept debit cards, despite it being five years into the 21st century. So I thought, screw this, and since I was only a couple of blocks from home anyway, I went home and brought in the boxes from the garage. Cross that one off, baby!
4. Bring in the boxes of Christmas decorations from the garage
That being done, I was about to drive out to a real post office when I called the bank to hear my balance, as is my periodic habit. It seemed awfully low. Like 400 dollars low. So instead of going to the post office I drove to Fred Meyer's and had the bank there print out a statement for me to peruse.
Someone made a $366 electronic payment to Cingular Wireless.
I've never had any dealings with Cingular. I use Sprint PCS (though probably won't after my contract is up in February). FRAUD! So I filled out some paperwork and all that crap. Until the money gets credited to my account I'm down $366. This being Christmastime, that's very poor timing.
Anyway, by the time I was doing with bonk stuff, Carrie called to be picked up. So I didn't never complete tasks #2 & #3. They have been pushed over to today.
We went straight from the Bead Factory to Trader Joe's to actually be able to eat stuff, seeing as how we were almost completely out of foodstuffs at the house. On the way home I got a call from Melissa saying that the Beaded Gifts handout class was being taught that night, not today (Wednesday) as Carrie thought. Whoops! So instead of going home and having a leisurely din-dins, I rushed to das computor and quickly created the handout and brought it to the store to print out. I gave the printouts to Niki with hopes that Leilani would get them.
For future reference, I usually prefer more than five hours notice when I have to create a handout.
Then I came home and we had a leisurely din-dins of pasta with blue cheese/parmesan/garlic sauce. YUMMMM. We had a really good and inexpensive German wine with it.
Then from 7:00 to 9:00 we watched Santa Claus is Comin' to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus and put up the Christmas decorations. PURDY!
In the evening I somehow let myself get caught over at Wikipedia, and spent like an hour and a half diving through links. I'm not sure what started it, but I ended up on Kasey Casem's entry. Whoops!
posted by Christopher at 9:16 AM
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Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Fun With Fuses
Yesterday (Tuesday) I went to the bonk and deposited the monies that Carrie made at Tidefest. She had a split-shift, so I picked her up around 12:45-ish for lunch.
Hmmm... y'know, I'm having trouble remembering inane specifics about yesterday before 4:00 PM. After that it's fine. Let's see. I know Carrie went with Linnea to Cost Plus World Market. She came home with glasses for me. Drinking kind, not wearing-on-the-face kind.
In the late afternoon the real fun started. I was on the toilet, as is my habit, when suddenly all the overhead lights in the whole house went out. Surprise! I ventured boldly down into the basement and unscrewed the fuse labeled "lights" and replaced it with an identical fuse I found lying around.
That's right, I unscrewed the fuse. The fuse box in our house seems almost as old as the house. Well, not that old, but still, old enough. The fuses are big round things, like half of a light bulb. Anyway, replacing the fuse turned the lights back on, so all was good. For a while. At around 6:15 the lights went out again. Carrie was on the phone with Cat, and since Carrie had to go to the store to teach right then, Cat said she'd call Home Depot to see if they carried those types of fuses. They did. So I took Carrie to work and then came back home. But before going to Home Depot to buy replacement fuses, I decided to see if I could find another one just lying around.
So I braved the basement again. Upon examining the fuse in the fuse box carefully, I noticed it had a small button on it. I pressed this in and heard a click. I looked up the stairs and could see that the light in the laundry room had come on! It turns out that these fuses aren't really fuses at all. They're like a cross between a fuse and a very primitive circuit breaker. Fascinating! I love 1950s tech.
To celebrate my victory over my fuse box, I took my DS to The Mandolin Cafe and played a couple of wireless games of Mario Kart DS while eating a panini sammitch and drinking some Moroccan Mint tea. I started out on one of the big couches by the fireplace, but then a large party came in so I graciously gave up my seat so they could all sit together. I moved to a small table behind one of the couches. Then I watched as the ladies pulled out strands they had just bought at the Bead Factory. Ha! I said my wife worked there, and in fact was teaching there right at that moment.
"Small world," one of the ladies said.
Anyway, I won all of the WFC Mario Kart games I played. Although Megatron gave me a run for my money during our matches.
Hmmm... y'know, I'm having trouble remembering inane specifics about yesterday before 4:00 PM. After that it's fine. Let's see. I know Carrie went with Linnea to Cost Plus World Market. She came home with glasses for me. Drinking kind, not wearing-on-the-face kind.
In the late afternoon the real fun started. I was on the toilet, as is my habit, when suddenly all the overhead lights in the whole house went out. Surprise! I ventured boldly down into the basement and unscrewed the fuse labeled "lights" and replaced it with an identical fuse I found lying around.
That's right, I unscrewed the fuse. The fuse box in our house seems almost as old as the house. Well, not that old, but still, old enough. The fuses are big round things, like half of a light bulb. Anyway, replacing the fuse turned the lights back on, so all was good. For a while. At around 6:15 the lights went out again. Carrie was on the phone with Cat, and since Carrie had to go to the store to teach right then, Cat said she'd call Home Depot to see if they carried those types of fuses. They did. So I took Carrie to work and then came back home. But before going to Home Depot to buy replacement fuses, I decided to see if I could find another one just lying around.
So I braved the basement again. Upon examining the fuse in the fuse box carefully, I noticed it had a small button on it. I pressed this in and heard a click. I looked up the stairs and could see that the light in the laundry room had come on! It turns out that these fuses aren't really fuses at all. They're like a cross between a fuse and a very primitive circuit breaker. Fascinating! I love 1950s tech.
To celebrate my victory over my fuse box, I took my DS to The Mandolin Cafe and played a couple of wireless games of Mario Kart DS while eating a panini sammitch and drinking some Moroccan Mint tea. I started out on one of the big couches by the fireplace, but then a large party came in so I graciously gave up my seat so they could all sit together. I moved to a small table behind one of the couches. Then I watched as the ladies pulled out strands they had just bought at the Bead Factory. Ha! I said my wife worked there, and in fact was teaching there right at that moment.
"Small world," one of the ladies said.
Anyway, I won all of the WFC Mario Kart games I played. Although Megatron gave me a run for my money during our matches.
posted by Christopher at 9:06 AM
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Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Geek-Out!
Yesterday (Tuesday) Carrie came home for lunch, and then she didn't come home again until almost 10:00 at night. Why? Well, I'll tell you.
When I picked her up from work we drove straight to the new location of Ever After so that she could put her jewelry out. Karla says they're opening today (Tuesday), but that place was still totally thrashed while we were there last evening, so they had a tonne of work ahead of them. Anyway, the new store is really big and very cool. I went with Lisa's parents and explored the back of it. It has a packaging area, a storage area, an upstairs room with its own storage area, and a balcony that overlooks the whole store and packaging area. It's pretty spectacular. Karla let me take home two scented candles in exchange for a small re-design I'd done of the Ever After logo.
After that Carrie & I walked just three doors down to Vin Grotto, a really awesome place that we always forget about. We were surprised it was open on Monday, seeing as how practically no other restaurants are. It's just such a cute place, maybe a little smaller than The Rosewood (more on that later), but with a whole wine cellar type of place out front. Carrie & I ended up being the only people there during the whole duration of our meal, which was antipasti and blue cheese torte things with dried fruit compote.
After Vin Grotto we went strait to Target for the purpose of getting Christmas cards. We didn't find any that we liked enough to get, but we did stock up on some other little gifts for people. And cats.
From Target we went to The Rosewood to have drinks with Melissa, Travis, Christine, and Lawrence. The Rosewood does this thing on Mondays where its wine-by-the-glass is less expensive than every other day of the week. Carrie & I had beer, though.
When I picked her up from work we drove straight to the new location of Ever After so that she could put her jewelry out. Karla says they're opening today (Tuesday), but that place was still totally thrashed while we were there last evening, so they had a tonne of work ahead of them. Anyway, the new store is really big and very cool. I went with Lisa's parents and explored the back of it. It has a packaging area, a storage area, an upstairs room with its own storage area, and a balcony that overlooks the whole store and packaging area. It's pretty spectacular. Karla let me take home two scented candles in exchange for a small re-design I'd done of the Ever After logo.
After that Carrie & I walked just three doors down to Vin Grotto, a really awesome place that we always forget about. We were surprised it was open on Monday, seeing as how practically no other restaurants are. It's just such a cute place, maybe a little smaller than The Rosewood (more on that later), but with a whole wine cellar type of place out front. Carrie & I ended up being the only people there during the whole duration of our meal, which was antipasti and blue cheese torte things with dried fruit compote.
After Vin Grotto we went strait to Target for the purpose of getting Christmas cards. We didn't find any that we liked enough to get, but we did stock up on some other little gifts for people. And cats.
From Target we went to The Rosewood to have drinks with Melissa, Travis, Christine, and Lawrence. The Rosewood does this thing on Mondays where its wine-by-the-glass is less expensive than every other day of the week. Carrie & I had beer, though.
Lawrence and I had a couple of total geek-out moments when talking about Silverhawks and also Voltron. He wanted to come over and see my toy collection in the office here. Speaking of which, I really need to find a better way to display some of them...
Anyway, it was very funny because the two of us were geeking out to the max, and Melissa suddenly says, "Oh, I need to interrupt you guys."
We both looked at her expectantly.
"That's it," she said. "I just wanted to interrupt you."
So that was a really fun evening. Carrie & I might make The Rosewood a weekly thing if possible.
posted by Christopher at 11:36 AM
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Monday, December 05, 2005
Hang Time
Yesterday (Sunday) Carrie took the car to Tidefest. I cleaned some until Taisha came over about a half-hour early for practice so that she could utilize my komputor.
Practice consisted mostly of FPRL and Robot Repairs, so it was all good. I sang a song about "Narcoleptic Amnesia" at one point.
Shortly after practice, Carrie came home surprisingly early! We walked down to Primo Grill and had an excellent date-like time. After we got home we spent most of the rest of the evening re-tagging her jewelry for the new opening of the new location of Ever After tomorrow. That, and working on Christmas lists for her family (what we want from them, not what we want to give them). Carrie is officially done with all the insane craziness. Tonight we decorate for Christmas!
Practice consisted mostly of FPRL and Robot Repairs, so it was all good. I sang a song about "Narcoleptic Amnesia" at one point.
Shortly after practice, Carrie came home surprisingly early! We walked down to Primo Grill and had an excellent date-like time. After we got home we spent most of the rest of the evening re-tagging her jewelry for the new opening of the new location of Ever After tomorrow. That, and working on Christmas lists for her family (what we want from them, not what we want to give them). Carrie is officially done with all the insane craziness. Tonight we decorate for Christmas!
posted by Christopher at 9:29 AM
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Sunday, December 04, 2005
Bye-Bye, Vox Populi
Yesterday (Saturday) Carrie was gone all day because of her Tidefest show. I dropped her off at Lisa's in the AM and then came back home and did a lot of laundry and dishes. And y'know what? It doesn't look like I did really anything at all. Car-razy.
Taisha didn't want to drive to Fools Play, so instead she drove to my house and I drove us both down.
Fools Play was "Advent Calendar." Rags and his 20s & 30s Tin-Pan Alley Style Band made an excellent appearance. Here's the opening song that Rags sang:
Babe, when I'm walking with you at Christmastime /
You make everything feel just fine /
That squid crawling down my leg /
Might as well be covered in elephant flesh /
When I'm with you at Christmastime!
The special guests were The Solvers and King Tut. Oh, wait. That's right. King Tut isn't here. He's an ancient mummified Egyptian. He would have no interest in appearing on a show like this.
My part in The Solvers is to provide the percussion, which I do by rhythmically clapping. Leah thinks this is the freakin' funniest thing in the world. I could hear her giggling and see her (out of the corner of my eye) pointing at me and whispering to Kedar.
Anyway, it was a really fun show. I did a lot of very strange characters, including someone who at one point said, "Oh, my god, I need emergency surgery!"
But the downside is I totally threw out my voice.
Taisha didn't want to drive to Fools Play, so instead she drove to my house and I drove us both down.
Fools Play was "Advent Calendar." Rags and his 20s & 30s Tin-Pan Alley Style Band made an excellent appearance. Here's the opening song that Rags sang:
Babe, when I'm walking with you at Christmastime /
You make everything feel just fine /
That squid crawling down my leg /
Might as well be covered in elephant flesh /
When I'm with you at Christmastime!
The special guests were The Solvers and King Tut. Oh, wait. That's right. King Tut isn't here. He's an ancient mummified Egyptian. He would have no interest in appearing on a show like this.
My part in The Solvers is to provide the percussion, which I do by rhythmically clapping. Leah thinks this is the freakin' funniest thing in the world. I could hear her giggling and see her (out of the corner of my eye) pointing at me and whispering to Kedar.
Anyway, it was a really fun show. I did a lot of very strange characters, including someone who at one point said, "Oh, my god, I need emergency surgery!"
But the downside is I totally threw out my voice.
posted by Christopher at 9:48 AM
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Saturday, December 03, 2005
Snow is Still on the Ground
The snow stayed around for all of yesterday (Friday). Carrie was picked up for work at around 8:30, which is horribly late compared to what she'd beed doing the previous days of the week. She called me later tell me that she was having lunch with the Lareau family, so not to pick her up at her scheduled 1:00 lunch break.
I had a nice conversation with Brandy via the magic of telephone. I might design a blog for her as my Christmas present to her. Hmmm... ideas are forming...
In the afternoon Carrie called and asked if I wanted to come down to the store and play some Mario Kart DS with Julian. Sure I did! So I walked through the snow down to the store. Pretty walking. Pretty white snow. We played the "Balloon Battle" mode, and we were actually pretty evenly matched. I won three out of five games, I think.
Then I walked back home.
Carrie was supposed to go to Lisa's after work so the two could go to Tidefest and setup their stuff, but Lisa called and said that Calvin (her husband) was stuck in traffic, and since they needed his truck to haul all their stuff, they'd have to wait. So it was about an hour later than expected that Carrie finally went to Lisa's house. But during that time she made some jewelry, so it weren't all bad.
Y'know what? We totally forgot to watch the big "Oprah on Letterman" episode on Thursday night. Totally completely slipped both of our minds. Too bad; it looked to be fun-nay. She presented him with an autographed photo of herself with Uma Thurman. Oprah... Uma. Uma... Oprah.
I had a nice conversation with Brandy via the magic of telephone. I might design a blog for her as my Christmas present to her. Hmmm... ideas are forming...
In the afternoon Carrie called and asked if I wanted to come down to the store and play some Mario Kart DS with Julian. Sure I did! So I walked through the snow down to the store. Pretty walking. Pretty white snow. We played the "Balloon Battle" mode, and we were actually pretty evenly matched. I won three out of five games, I think.
Then I walked back home.
Carrie was supposed to go to Lisa's after work so the two could go to Tidefest and setup their stuff, but Lisa called and said that Calvin (her husband) was stuck in traffic, and since they needed his truck to haul all their stuff, they'd have to wait. So it was about an hour later than expected that Carrie finally went to Lisa's house. But during that time she made some jewelry, so it weren't all bad.
Y'know what? We totally forgot to watch the big "Oprah on Letterman" episode on Thursday night. Totally completely slipped both of our minds. Too bad; it looked to be fun-nay. She presented him with an autographed photo of herself with Uma Thurman. Oprah... Uma. Uma... Oprah.
posted by Christopher at 7:43 AM
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Friday, December 02, 2005
Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland
Yesterday (Thursday) Carrie went once again to work very early. But she had a split-shift because it was the day of the big trunk show at the store, and she was going back in in the evening to work it. So I made her the last salmon-patty melt (because it was the last salmon patty) for lunch.
It started to snow. It was very bravely trying to stick, but couldn't really get a foothold. The grass was starting to get dusted white, but nothing really came of it. It wasn't anywhere near sticking to the pavement.
Linnea took Carrie to the mall at some point in the afternoon. Although neither of them ended up buying anything (other than coffee).
By the time I drove Carrie back to the store for the trunk show, the snow was practically non-existant.
That evening I was feeling creatively stymied. There wasn't really anything I wanted to work on. There were things I could work on, but nothing really felt like I should be working on it. So instead I watched Sahara. Meh. I've read almost all of the Dirk Pitt series of books (even though they mostly pretty much suck—but once I start reading something, just try and get me to stop, especially back when I was a teenager), and while there were some superficial similarities, at very few junctures did any of the characters remind me of their literary counterparts. Poor casting all around.
I picked up Carrie just after 9:00. And then the snow really started to come down. It was really pretty. I made us some eggs and hash browns as an evening snack/meal, and then I looked out the window. "Wow," I said.
The snow was sticking very effectively. There was already an inch built up. So Carrie & I decided to do our tradition when it snows heavily in the evenings. We went for a nighttime snow walk.
One thing I really like about snow in this area is that when it snows almost invariably the wind dies completely. Therefore even though the air is technically cold, it doesn't feel cold. I was just wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt under my trenchcoat, and I didn't even have to button my coat up, or wear a scarf or gloves or anything. It was nice.
And it was freakin' gorgeous. Some of the snow falling was almost an inch in diameter. Big chunks falling slowly out of the darkness.
We walked up the street and ended up walking down Linnea's street. It was well after 10:00 by this time, so we figured that they were all probably in bed already. But as we walked by their house we noticed that the TV was still on. And that they had their Christmas tree and it was all lit up and everything. We took a few steps onto their lawn to get a better look at the tree, when suddenly Jay's face appeared in the window looking surprised.
So we went in and visited Linnea & Jay in their living room for a while. I left my coat on the front porch because by the time we got to their house from ours I had built up an inch of snow on it. But anyway, it was a nice evening visit, unnanounced though it was.
We walked home and shortly thereafter went to bed. It was still snowing. Here's what it looked like when I woke up this morning:
It started to snow. It was very bravely trying to stick, but couldn't really get a foothold. The grass was starting to get dusted white, but nothing really came of it. It wasn't anywhere near sticking to the pavement.
Linnea took Carrie to the mall at some point in the afternoon. Although neither of them ended up buying anything (other than coffee).
By the time I drove Carrie back to the store for the trunk show, the snow was practically non-existant.
That evening I was feeling creatively stymied. There wasn't really anything I wanted to work on. There were things I could work on, but nothing really felt like I should be working on it. So instead I watched Sahara. Meh. I've read almost all of the Dirk Pitt series of books (even though they mostly pretty much suck—but once I start reading something, just try and get me to stop, especially back when I was a teenager), and while there were some superficial similarities, at very few junctures did any of the characters remind me of their literary counterparts. Poor casting all around.
I picked up Carrie just after 9:00. And then the snow really started to come down. It was really pretty. I made us some eggs and hash browns as an evening snack/meal, and then I looked out the window. "Wow," I said.
The snow was sticking very effectively. There was already an inch built up. So Carrie & I decided to do our tradition when it snows heavily in the evenings. We went for a nighttime snow walk.
One thing I really like about snow in this area is that when it snows almost invariably the wind dies completely. Therefore even though the air is technically cold, it doesn't feel cold. I was just wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt under my trenchcoat, and I didn't even have to button my coat up, or wear a scarf or gloves or anything. It was nice.
And it was freakin' gorgeous. Some of the snow falling was almost an inch in diameter. Big chunks falling slowly out of the darkness.
We walked up the street and ended up walking down Linnea's street. It was well after 10:00 by this time, so we figured that they were all probably in bed already. But as we walked by their house we noticed that the TV was still on. And that they had their Christmas tree and it was all lit up and everything. We took a few steps onto their lawn to get a better look at the tree, when suddenly Jay's face appeared in the window looking surprised.
So we went in and visited Linnea & Jay in their living room for a while. I left my coat on the front porch because by the time we got to their house from ours I had built up an inch of snow on it. But anyway, it was a nice evening visit, unnanounced though it was.
We walked home and shortly thereafter went to bed. It was still snowing. Here's what it looked like when I woke up this morning:
It probably won't stay for very long (it never does around here). But this week has been so insanely hectic that it was nice to have an evening where there was nothing to do but be with my wife and look at the pretty.
posted by Christopher at 9:15 AM
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Thursday, December 01, 2005
Default Mood: Holiday
Yesterday (Wednesday) Carrie left for work at 6:45 in the AM. I didn't get outta bed until closer to 8:00.
While I was eating lunch (sushi) I turned on the TV and found that there were new episodes of Kim Possible on. Huh? I thought they ended that series! I mean, they had the big final movie (So the Drama) and everything. Weird. One episode had a very shocking event in it (even more shocking than when Ron & Kim kiss in So the Drama): Wade actually showed up in the flesh at one point.
Yes, I like that show. So what? Anyway, Carrie called and had me maker her lunch (grilled cheese sammitch and onion soup) and bring it to her at the store, which I did. Then I went back to Fred Meyer to put more money in my account and also pick up some stuff like extra Christmas lights, Ibuprofen, and... stuff.
Carrie didn't get off work until after 5:00. I picked her up and we drove a heavy box of stones out to the Lareau household so it could be tagged that evening. We also brought Julian back his DS, and as a way of saying thank-you for letting us borrow it we also got him Mario Kart DS. He was very happy about that.
For dinner I made really, really delicious salmon-patty melts on grilled sourdough bread, with my own special garlic-lemon-sour cream sauce. Man, they were good.
At 8:00 CBS played the newly-restored Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I must say, it did look a lot better than usual. Also, I think it might have been un-edited this time, but I can't say for sure. It ran over a couple of minutes, so that's what makes me think that. Hmm... I wonder. Oh well.
Watching Rudolph with Carrie really helped get me in the holiday mood. Not that it's at all difficult to get me in the holiday mood. I'm kinda there by default.
Man, those salmon-patty melts were so good that Carrie had me make up a couple more later in the evening. She went to bed early because she had to get up and go to work early again today.
Also today I made a new version of my "portfolio" page. I'm treating it more like a blog, so I can just post new things whenever I make 'em. I'm hoping this will encourage me to create more things. You can get to it through the Projects link anywhre from This is Chris dot com. Or you can click here.
While I was eating lunch (sushi) I turned on the TV and found that there were new episodes of Kim Possible on. Huh? I thought they ended that series! I mean, they had the big final movie (So the Drama) and everything. Weird. One episode had a very shocking event in it (even more shocking than when Ron & Kim kiss in So the Drama): Wade actually showed up in the flesh at one point.
Yes, I like that show. So what? Anyway, Carrie called and had me maker her lunch (grilled cheese sammitch and onion soup) and bring it to her at the store, which I did. Then I went back to Fred Meyer to put more money in my account and also pick up some stuff like extra Christmas lights, Ibuprofen, and... stuff.
Carrie didn't get off work until after 5:00. I picked her up and we drove a heavy box of stones out to the Lareau household so it could be tagged that evening. We also brought Julian back his DS, and as a way of saying thank-you for letting us borrow it we also got him Mario Kart DS. He was very happy about that.
For dinner I made really, really delicious salmon-patty melts on grilled sourdough bread, with my own special garlic-lemon-sour cream sauce. Man, they were good.
At 8:00 CBS played the newly-restored Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I must say, it did look a lot better than usual. Also, I think it might have been un-edited this time, but I can't say for sure. It ran over a couple of minutes, so that's what makes me think that. Hmm... I wonder. Oh well.
Watching Rudolph with Carrie really helped get me in the holiday mood. Not that it's at all difficult to get me in the holiday mood. I'm kinda there by default.
Man, those salmon-patty melts were so good that Carrie had me make up a couple more later in the evening. She went to bed early because she had to get up and go to work early again today.
Also today I made a new version of my "portfolio" page. I'm treating it more like a blog, so I can just post new things whenever I make 'em. I'm hoping this will encourage me to create more things. You can get to it through the Projects link anywhre from This is Chris dot com. Or you can click here.
posted by Christopher at 7:33 AM
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Of the Month: December '05
Link of the Month:
My Wish List
Merry Christmas to me! At least, it will be a merry Christmas if you give me something from my Amazon Wish List. That way you'll know that I'll be sure to love it! And you by association!
Game of the Month:
Mario Kart DS
At long last the Killer app for the Nintendo DS has arrived. Play with people from around the world! Or just play with your friends. It's got more tracks than any Mario Kart to date (32 total—and half of them are from the 4 previous Mario Kart games, which kicks total ass). My Mario Kart DS Friend Code: 004354 558412
Album of the Month:
Holiday Sing-Along with Mitch Miller
There's something just nice about a whole bunch of people singing holiday songs in as straight-ahead and unadorned a fashion as humanly possible. This album always reminds me of my childhood when we had it on actual vinyl. And how can you resist Mitch with his adorable VanDyke beard? You can't! Give in!
My Wish List Merry Christmas to me! At least, it will be a merry Christmas if you give me something from my Amazon Wish List. That way you'll know that I'll be sure to love it! And you by association!
Game of the Month:
Mario Kart DS At long last the Killer app for the Nintendo DS has arrived. Play with people from around the world! Or just play with your friends. It's got more tracks than any Mario Kart to date (32 total—and half of them are from the 4 previous Mario Kart games, which kicks total ass). My Mario Kart DS Friend Code: 004354 558412
Album of the Month:
Holiday Sing-Along with Mitch Miller There's something just nice about a whole bunch of people singing holiday songs in as straight-ahead and unadorned a fashion as humanly possible. This album always reminds me of my childhood when we had it on actual vinyl. And how can you resist Mitch with his adorable VanDyke beard? You can't! Give in!
posted by Christopher at 7:32 AM
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