My So Called Life

Oh the weather outside is frightful

/ Shane / 2 Comments

Nothing is better than Christmas time!  I get so excited to put up the tree and all the decorations and everything.  So yesterday was perfect!  It started snowing out, I was reading Evie some Christmas stories, singing her Christmas songs, etc.  I got out the tree and assembled it and then I put the lights on.  We bought these strands of old fashioned, glowy lights like we used to have when I was little.  I was pretty excited about them;  I like them way better than the newer small lights that we’ve used for the past couple of years.  So I got the lights on the tree and everything was ready for the ornaments.

Thats when everything went bad.

I should have read the omens correctly when the beautiful snow turned into yucky cold rain and washed off the inch or so of accumulation we had.  So first off, let me say that there were a few issues with the lights the other day that I sort of glossed over in my Christmas euphoria.  First off apparently they are covered in lead.  It says so on the box, but probably nobody looks at the box before they throw it away.  Second off, one of the bulbs broke for no reason at all.  I don’t even know what caused it to break, but of course now there is tiny glass shards all over.  So today I had the lights on because Evie likes looking at them and then I noticed that they were melting the tree!!!  So we had to take them off the tree because we don’t want to ruin it or have a fire or something.  So instead we draped them over our bookcases.  While we were getting that set up, the first strand blew a fuse.  I replaced the fuse and as soon as I plugged it in it blew the second fuse.  At this point there were only 2 strands plugged together and the directions clearly state you can have more than that plugged together safely.  I don’t know if there is some electrical flaw in the strand or what.

So at this point we have strands of lights dripping in lead, shorting out and setting fire to everything they meet while shattering glass shards all over the place.  The only way these things could be more dangerous is if they were filled with angry bees!

This is on top of the fact that there were about 6 bulbs already burned out in 3 strands the first time they were ever lit, and the paint is already being chipped off some of the bulbs.  So I’ve boxed up all the lights again to deal with them next year.  I was this close to throwing them all away but I resisted.  So now I have to put new lights on the tree (for the 3rd time if you count the time when Sara made me redo it because they weren’t spread out enough!)

Oh well, I had the Christmas spirit…

Self Promotion

/ Shane / 3 Comments

As I’ve alluded to previously, Sara, Evie and I were featured in a magazine recently.  So you can see us in the current issue of Chicago Magazine, available at all retail outlets.  🙂  It is just a one page fluff piece on picking baby names, no big deal, but it does have a picture of us.

Here is the weird part…check out the comment someone left on the webpage:
Posted by Anonymous
With regards to our “City Life” article..”A name game”
Please…You 30 somethings are killing me…you want to name your kid some thing that will go well with sports? Guess what? Your kid will be interested i what he wants despite you trying to live vicariously thru him. Dell is the drunk down the street, Riley is the ubnfriendly dog with the runny eye across the street, Darious is a gay greek, Dean is a nerd Edward is my drunk uncle and Harvey is a 6′ tall imaginary rabbit so I guess now those names are out. Finley is a border collie I know, August is a month and Keller, well Keller is just a last name that 30 somethings use to name their children. How about Othello?

Wow!  What bitterness!  I’m so glad that it was only about the other couple and not us!! We would have been pretty upset.  Unfortunately, the article itself does not seem to be online.

So we survived the big Thanksgiving week!  Rachael moved back from Japan and arrived on Saturday.  Sara’s family arrived Tuesday night, more of my family arrived on Wednesday and finally my dad arrived the day of.  So we had 11 people (plus Evie) here for the big meal (and Packer game!).  We had lots and lots of food and we’re still working on the left-overs.  I really enjoyed it.  I kind of felt like, “wow, this is what it’s all about” you know?  It was great to have our own place with room for everybody and everybody got to spend time with the baby.  And I think everything went very smoothly and it wasn’t really as much work as I expected it to be.  Next up, Christmas!

Finally, I had a real “ah-ha” moment today.  Am I crazy or in Weapon of Choice, is Fatboy Slim referring to the Dune books by Frank Herbert when he says “if you walk without rhythm, you won’t attract the worm”?

Myspace videos

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Sorry, problem fixed with the videos.  You should be able to see them now.  Thank to Jen for pointing out the problem!

Speaking of technical issues, what’s the deal with the pop-up window things when you hover over the links on my blog??  I guess in time I could come to like it, but my first instinct is nuh-uh!  I don’t know if you can turn it off or not.  I’m also annoyed there is a search box at the top that doesn’t search my journal!  And while I’m complaining about things, I wonder if I’m allowed to use Google analytics yet?

Dart Throwing Monkeys

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I’m sure lots of exciting stuff happened since the last time I posted but I’m too tired to think about it.  Halloween was pretty uneventful since we got no trick or treaters and Evie was a little too young to appreciate the holiday.  I’ll put some spooky ghost pictures up on myspace sometime.

I haven’t posted any games on here in a long time.  You know I like Tower Defense games because I post them all the time, so here is the latest take on that.  It is called Bloons and instead of the standard Warcraft/Starcraft ripoff this one involves dart throwing monkeys that pop balloons.  I appreciate the new take on the old concept.  Also I like how you always know how much “power” something has by the color of the balloon.  Anyway, I think I actually like Bloons 2 a little better.  I haven’t beaten any of them yet, but I can get into the 40s.

So, enjoy!

Animal Abuse or why I shouldn’t have kids

/ Shane / 3 Comments

I was playing with the cat on Saturday night and all of a sudden she sort of ran away a little bit and started freaking out.  She was pawing at her face and going crazy.  So we went over to see what was up and we saw blood flying out of her mouth!  So we started panicking and I grabbed her and I could see that she was licking her tooth and it was wiggling all over.  This was like one of the two major fangs in her mouth!  And when she closed her mouth I could see that tooth was hanging lower than the other one.  So I freaked out and I ran upstairs to get the vet’s number and in the meantime Sara was watching Nala and saw her tooth fall out.  Oh man, I felt so bad!  I don’t really remember hitting her head but we were sort of rough housing.  I called the vet’s emergency number and he said to watch her and see if she was okay and bring her in on Monday.  Well, she didn’t seem to be in pain at all, she let us pet her and she even wanted to keep playing!  I gave her food and she dug into it with her usual gusto.  But I still felt really bad.

So yesterday I took her to the vet and they came up with something that I didn’t even think of…what if that tooth broke off and the root is still in there!  So we have to have some surgery on Friday. 😦  Her doctor said that it was probably just a rotten tooth, but I still feel responsible.  So now I have to pet her all the time and give her whatever she wants.  Also, I have the fun of giving her antibiotic pills twice a day!

This is neither here nor there, but my brother called me tonight to tell me that he’s on his way to a bar in Madison that serves bacon on Tuesdays.  I’ve had popcorn and hotdogs, but never bacon!  Brilliant idea, but kind of strange.  Only in Wisconsin kids.  Only in Wisconsin.

I did my first Sudoku puzzle today.  Am I the last one on earth?