1. Where does the time go? I hoped to get this posted early!
2. At this rate I’ll never get through the holiday season.
3. How can such a joyous time be so stressful? I’m just saying…
4. Here are some links to make the season brighter:
5. Link #1: Stewart-Colbert ‘08
6. Link #2: What happens at Nana’s… stays at Nana’s.
7. And best of all shipping is free — just saw it on their site.
8. I love Amazon wish lists. Love ‘em, love ‘em, love ‘em!
9. When the grandparents asked, I just sent the kids’ URL’s!
10. I have a wish list, too… sure you can see it!
11. Someone bought me something on my list once.
12. Secret admirerer? Stalker is more what it felt like.
13. It was actually pretty creepy, I have to say. :/

Craziequeen has introduced me to a new meme that looks like fun… It’s called Blog Fodder and there’s a topic each week. This week it’s…

“What are some of your memorable experiences at school?”

Well as I was saying over at CQ’s Palace, I enjoyed school. I remember not really caring how much I fit in, how cool I was, etc.

I remember being a really, really good student. I would always get really stressed out about doing assignments like writing papers. And everything turned out just fine.

I remember being in the marching band and going to football games. That was always fun. The weather was always crisp and cool, which I love.

I remember doing some really wacky science projects with a friend of mine. Filling up beverage bottles with different amounts of water and making a xylophone — that was pretty cool.

But do you think I could be bothered to go to my high school reunion a few years ago? No. Somebody said to me that it’s all about how successful you are and how good looking your wife is. I figured since I knew I had it all, why show off.

It’s fun to look back. Good times, definitely!

I was just coming to the conclusion that Black Friday had turned into Black November when Thanksgiving came along. And what was that supposed to mean? The start of the Christmas season, of course!

This is going to sound blasphemous and all, but here goes… What would be so wrong with having Christmas in December?

I know, I’m so out of touch, so out of my mind, but I’m sick of Christmas decorations already and it isn’t even December yet!

For one thing, it’s not cold enough. It isn’t always in the forties the week after Thanksgiving but that’s what our forecast is offering for the next few days. I just can’t get into the mood.

And would somebody please tell me how this works in Australia… isn’t it summer there? And I’ve been to L.A. in December to see the silver Christmas trees all shiny… and that was fine because I was just there a week and back to snowy New England before the 25th. But I digress.

I know this campaign will go nowhere, but I’m going to make my own “Christmas in December” bumper sticker.

On sale now. Get ‘em quick! Oh, and they make excellent stocking stuffers!

You may be wondering, and rightfully so, what the fuck is going on around here?

Well it all happened in a panic, and thankfully, both harmlessly and needlessly.

My brother e-mailed me the other day. We were going to his house for Thanksgiving and I was making a pie and blah blah blah. And “what kind of whiskey do you like?” And “I searched the internet but I couldn’t find it.”

Gulp. What the…

Of course the first thing I thought of was that he found my blog and he was reading it and… OMG and aaaargh!! So what did I do? I almost just deleted everything, which I fortunately didn’t do… and then I was worried about the google cache so I put up a goodbye instead.

But at this point I was thinking it might really be goodbye… if the jig was up and the cat was out of the bag, I was going to have to burn my… oh I don’t know, I’ve run out of sayings.

Well fast forward to Thursday and I kind of innocently asked him about searching for me on the Internet. “Well I thought you put your Ireland pictures on your web site and I couldn’t remember which distillery you went to. But then I asked around and Dad said it was Jameson. And he gives me this bottle of Jameson for my birthday, which was the day before.

Well what a nice thing, and thank God I had just jumped to conclusions… and that I hadn’t done something totally stupid like just delete everything!

So isn’t this a good lesson… family doesn’t suck so much after all… and the shocking OMG’s aren’t always what your worst fears tell you they are!

And here I am, back from what I thought was the dead. So did you miss me? :)

Oh… and I almost forgot… today is in fact my bloggaversary!!

I feel woozy, like I blacked out or something.

Smelling salts, I need some smelling salts!!

P.S. It’s a long story…

My computer woes are behind me, thanks to a friend who loaned me his install disks. You must only do this if you actually own the software, of course, and I do.

This is a good lesson, though. If you looked at my own install disk #1, it was a bit scratchy. I was able to clean up the scratches using one of those Disc Doctor tools that polishes out the scratches. But what can’t be fixed by any means is damage to the top (labeled) side of the disk. If you get a scratch on that you can kiss the disk goodbye.

Oh what a day it’s been! It started with a screwdriver and an old laptop. It ended with…

Well, it didn’t really start with an old laptop. Really it was more like three old laptops. Two Dells and a Mac. The older Dell had already given up its CD drive to replace the one from the newer Dell that had crapped out. And wouldn’t you know it, that newer Dell’s keyboard was giving me trouble lately, too. You’d press the Alt key and it would auto-repeat like there was no tomorrow.

Anyway, it was early and I had a screwdrive in my hand — the tool, not the beverage… I mean seriously, mixing fruity things with perfectly good vodka? please!! Anyway, I looked at that older Dell and said, fuck it, I want that keyboard. So I started unscrewing and wouldn’t you know it, it was really easy to get it apart! And then I proceeded to install it in the newer Dell… so easily, you’d think I was a technician or something!

And then I noticed that there was a bigger hard drive in that older Dell than in my old Mac laptop. Well its keyboard is gone, so surely it won’t miss its hard drive, right? And it had a 128 MB memory stick, which I swapped for a smaller one in the Mac. The 64 MB that came out of that system went right to… you guessed it, to the newer Dell!

So now I’ve got one completely ransacked old Dell, but the newer Dell has more memory and a better keyboard, and the Mac has more memory and a bigger hard drive. All for an hour or so of work!

And then the system karma caught up with me. The Mac I’d been working with — well it’s the oldest of THREE, including the new one I just got. Well thank god nothing happened to THAT one, but my previous one, the one in the middle — its hard drive went south on me just a half hour later. AND my install disk is scratched, so I have to wait until Monday to borrow one from a friend. Glee to suckage in less than an hour. Whaaaaah!!

Yes, I know, I’m liable to jinx my new system. Don’t worry, I knocked wood when I typed that. Wheew! :)

 
This week I had a choice between the same cards as last week and two new ones, each costing me a whopping $2. Fortunately there was $2 leftover from last week’s winnings, which was nice.

On the left we’ve got blackjack and on the right we’ve got football. Eight spots on each to pick from, and I’ll update this space to let you know what’s left.

 
And remember, there’s nothing to win, no money changing hands, and so it’s all perfectly legal… So let’s get scratching!! :)

1. A certain someone is doing his very first TT today.
2. You can go and check it out if you want, I’ll wait.
3. He’s kind of persona-non-grata at TT HQ, but whatever.
4. I’ve been pretty good about exercising this month.
5. What? It shows? Why thank you very much!
6. That’s one of the reasons I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year.
7. Yes, that’s actually true. I felt like a real slug on 12/1/05.
8. One of my R/L friends can’t get broadband at her house.
9. I’m so sad for her I think I could cry, and I’m not kidding!
10. Is it weird that I’m trying to keep each thing all on one line?
11. It’s just so aesthetically… I dunno… important!!
12. I’m glad that Wifey didn’t watch SNL with me this week.
13. Yeah, ’cause anal sex makes her a little uncomfortable.

If someone’s sick and you avoid them like the plague, is that considered irony or just good hygiene? Eldest Daughter was sick in bed all weekend. I brought her everything she needed from Tylenol to toast. But I definitely kept my distance.

Junior has learned to play backgammon. We played a bunch of games over the weekend and I gave him a few pointers. He’s beaten me twice now. I think now I see the error of my ways.

Youngest Daughter and I watched Junior march in the Veterans’ Day parade on Saturday. It was a nice parade, with lots of troops home from Iraq. Welcome home, now put your boots back on and march down Main Street… Nice!

Pig #2 was delivered on time yesterday. The trick is to put the feed trough in the trailer several days ahead of time. And then the day before we locked her in. It was a delightful experience for everybody and the farm is now pig-free.

I’m sitting here at car fix-it-up place #2 of the day. This morning I took my truck to the dealer to get its window motor fixed. Now I’m at a different place getting the A/C worked on. Can’t defog the windshield without that!

That’s about it. I’d better send this before my battery runs out!