Oh the weather outside is frightful

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…

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!

And also, RIP James Brown. And by Rest in Peace I mean don’t Get on Up…

Long time no post

As usual, this time of year is kind of hectic, so there aren’t many updates.  Well, due to some people demanding an update, here you go!

Three weeks ago my mom came to visit.  I forget what we did other than play Acquire all weekend.  I think we each won once too.

Two weeks ago we went to have Christmas with my Dad.  Relatively uneventful I think.  Sara had this idea to take all of my dad’s hundreds of pictures off of his old computer for him and put them on CDs.  Nathan decided to do that for him for Christmas.  So we tried to sneak down during the party and do it, but it turns out he had one of those old Compaqs that are impossible to do anything with!!  So we had to remove like every component of the computer in order to get the hard drive out.  I think we busted it beyond working condition.  Oh well.  Anyway, by the time we got the hard drive out, my dad was on to us so it wasn’t a secret anymore.

It was a good time.  That was actually the first time either my dad or I had been to a game at Lambeau.  If you have a snapfish account, you can see the pictures here.  We had a good time, but there was one near disaster.  So we wanted to go to the hall of fame first because it opened at 8 and the special tailgate that we had tickets for at the Brett Favre Steakhouse didn’t start until 9.  So we went to the hall of fame, but it’s inside the new Lambeau Atrium which means they had to tare our tickets to get into it.  I asked them if we would be able to leave and then get back in and they were like, “Oh yeah, no problem.”  So we went to the hall of fame (which was awesome, but I’ve been there before) and got done with that at 9:30.  So we were going to walk out of the stadium and I was like, “Wait, I just gotta ask…” So I asked a guy, “Now, they tore our tickets when we came in, but we’re going to be able to leave and then come back, right?” And he was like, “Nope.  That only works if you leave before 9:30 and seeing as it’s 9:30 right now, you have to stay in the stadium until the game starts at noon.”  I was pretty upset because I bought the tickets to that tailgate like a looong time ago and we were going to miss it.  But my dad was like, “No, there has to be someone we can talk to.”  So we talked to someone else who directed us to someone else who directed us to someone else who took us over to talk to someone else.  So this guy is aparently like the head of all the ticket takers, and he says, “Oh, no problem.  We’re done stamping hands for the day, but you can just give me your tickets and I’ll hold on to them and then when you want to come back in come and find me and I’ll let you in.”  We were like, “Okaaaay…” because it seemed kind of shady, but he was like the official guy that the official lady took us over to.  So we ended up giving him our tickets and we left and I thought, “We are never getting back into the game.”  But when we came back we found him right away and he gave us our tickets and let us in and everything was good to go!

So the tailgate was pretty cool.  I had 2 brats with sourkraut, a burger, some pasta salad and 2 cookies!  They had all you could drink of pop, beer, bloody marys and screwdrivers.  There was a DJ playing pro-Packer songs and they were throwing out tee-shirts and stuff.  We didn’t get any, although my dad did get some beads.  We also got to meet and get our picture taken with ex-Packer Gilbert Brown!!

The game was a good time too, although the offense was playing terribly.  Also there was some drunk guy a couple of rows up from us who wouldn’t shut up the whole time  It was a close one (10-9 at the end of the 3rd quarter) but the Packers ultimately won 17-9.  I know my dad had a good time too.

In other, more typically blog related news, here is a tower defense flash game.  It’s kind of slow at the begining but gets tough at the end.

On the other hand, here is a much more addicting time waster!  Basically you draw lines for your little sledder to ride on and make him do loops and stuff.  Check out the videos of other crazy ones that people have made!  They’re nuts!

Finally, you should really check out the Keith and the Girl podcast.  I’ve been listening to it quite a bit lately and I really like it, and I can’t get the opening song out of my head! (“Hey all you assholes, come and listen to us. It’s the Keith and The Girl show!”)  Remember that this is a podcast only, it’s not broadcast anywhere, so there are no FCC regulations.  Consequently, the language/content can be pretty bad!  Consider yourself warned!

quick post

First off, Happy Birthday to me!  (26 in case you were wondering)

Maybe I’ll make a bigger post later about our holiday driving extravaganza (2,200 miles driven in a week and a half).  Next weekend we’re going to drive up to VT and visit with Jen and Derek.  What’s better than vacation right after vacation? 🙂

Sara is still marveling that I got 18 books for christmas (although not every book I asked for).  I also got 6 cds which are all great.  (Latest Jack Johnson, latest Better than Ezra, Wicked soundtrack, Simon and Garfunkle’s greatest hits, Jet “Get Born” and the latest Gwen Stephani.  Yeah, Gwen Stephani.  Thank God few people read this)  It’s been so long since I got new music that I almost forgot what it was like.  We’re not allowed to bring burned cds in to work, so my collection was getting pretty stale.

This might be a little late since christmas is done and all, but I guess it’s never too late to pimp out a nutcracker.

P.S.  My mom gave me a graduation card when we were home!