Month: December 2009

The Shorts win at Christmas Again!

My Christmas season is mostly all post Christmas this year. Christmas Day was just time for the kitties to open their stockings & me to open their present. They got cat toys in the stockings and a new water fountain and a new litter box mat as their present. They liked the cat toys and were “eh” about the other gifts.

Mom, Dad and I went to Tokyo Peking for lunch, and it was tasty, tasty. Our plan was then to go see Sherlock Holmes, but it was sold out when we got to the theater. No matter, we made plans to watch the 7pm showing. This was a good plan – we all enjoyed the flick.

The 26th was the Christmas party for mom’s side of the family. We had a nice time at my Aunt Charlene’s. Lots of good food, plenty of conversation, and seeing cousins I don’t get to see very often. The girls (first cousins, once removed) are all taller than me now (or nearly) and all pretty. I had picked up some wooden boxes for them then wood-burned designs on ’em and stained them. They all turned out nice. (Took photos and will post one of these days.) Had also baked some beer bread for the adult ladies present (aunts & first cousins). Returned home that night to do laundry (I’d stayed at mom & dad’s for Christmas night).

Yesterday, I got back to the folks early in the morning so that by 9am we could zip up north & east to meet with Amy & Rachel and Rachel’s dad (who was driving them there from his place in PA). The girls had picked a place that was about halfway between them and us. So we just had a two & a half hour drive or so. We left early so we got there early. We met at Troyer’s Dutch Heritage Restaurant (and gift shop). Good place to meet up & eat.

We all ordered the buffet, but alas, Rachel’s dad had to get back to PA for a party that he & Rachel’s mom were attending (along with their two exchange students). (Alas, Rachel’s mom wasn’t feeling well enough for the 5+ hour car ride, so we didn’t get to see her again.) The food was good, and then we headed back home.

After a short stop in Columbus so Amy could see her old apartment complex again, we got back on the road and then the snow began. Pretty much as soon as we got into Miami County, the snow started. And didn’t stop for many hours. We wound up with over 3″ of snow.

After a bit of a rest at the house, we loaded the car with gifts & cookies for dad’s side of the family. More gifts were exchanged (especially for my cousin, whose birthday was yesterday. I made sure to get her a present specifically for her b-day and wrap it in regular paper because it’s annoying to get birthday presents wrapped in holiday wrap. It’s an identity thing or something.)

As I’d mentioned, it was snowing. And the roads were pretty bad when we headed back to the house. But mom was driving (and she’s actually had to drive in crappy weather before, unlike me & dad who are teachers) and she got us home safely (and slowly). We then relaxed and watched the Da Vinci Code. And then bedtime.

Today was Christmas for us. Although none of us were late risers, we got started a bit late. After stockings and then breakfast, we started present opening. It was 9:58am. We go in order, starting with the youngest (Rachel). I passed out one present at a time, so we could savor the unwrapping. And there was a bit of a break midway. But at noon, we were finished. Mom had the most pressies (no surprise there!) but dad fared well too. And I made out like a bandit.

I am now the proud owner of Beatles Rock Band. And I also got a microphone, a guitar, and a drum set for the Wii. Sweet! Also got some DVDs (yay, the War Games!), a book, some CDs, and some nice clothes. Amy & Rachel also got me some herbs from their garden and a University of Minnesota sweat shirt (which is where Rachel is attending for her Masters degree).

Mom, Amy, Rachel and I went to Hothead Burritos for lunch, and picked up a Subway sub for dad. Now we’re vegging. Amy’s balancing her checkbook, Rachel’s on her laptop getting caught up on Facebook and e-mail, and I’m writing this.

Tomorrow, elsaf and judiang will arrive, for even more Christmas fun! So yay, Christmas!

Baking Day 2009 (day 1)

It’s either because mom & I are getting older or because we like to bake far too much stuff (probably a combo of the two) but Baking Day now takes more than 1 day to do.

Today we couldn’t start first thing in the morning because I still had to go in to work. But we had an early dismissal (planned), so I told the folks to expect me for lunch.

I got to Troy around 1pm and we headed off to Night Sky Cafe for lunch. They have a lunch buffet, which we all took advantage of. I like their broccoli soup (even though it’s rather thick) and it was on the buffet. Baked tater (topped with chili & cheese), salads, and baked goods rounded out the filling lunch.

We popped into Kohl’s for a bit – I got a couple of Xmas towels (for my guests coming next week), slippers for wearing at mom & dad’s place, and some wrapping paper (since I’m almost out).

But once we returned to the house, mom and I got down to business. She began baking her Icebox Cookies (butterscotch cookies) which she’d made the night before. I started on the Peanut Butter Fudge. (This is a first for us this year.)

Once the fudge was done, we made the cookie dough for Lindy Cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip cookies) and then the batter for Aunt Alma’s Pecan Cookies. The pecan cookies are the stickiest thing we make and our first attempt using heavy wax paper on an old cookie sheet didn’t work too well. But Kitchen Aid cookie sheets worked fairly well.

During the Lindy Cookies baking time, we decided we were ready for supper. We all had ham sammiches and nachos. Then back to chocolate chip cookie baking. Mom then made the batter for cheesecake cupcakes. In fact, they’ve just finished baking. Yay!

Tomorrow, we’ll do a few other things – Peanut Butter Blossoms (aka nipple cookies), Cracker Jacks, sugar cookies (from Market Day – the fun here is in the decorating), and lemon bars (a store bought mix). There’s Good Eats here, I tell ya! 🙂

Music Musings

If you didn’t already know (though I imagine most of you do) I’m an MP3 junky. Whenever I buy or receive a CD, the first thing I do is rip it and then stuff it on my iPod(s). Then I listen to it. Mostly, I just buy MP3s from Amazon.com (which I backup onto CD. Heh.) I have a MusicServer just for holding (a copy of) my MP3s and for serving up to my two Roku Soundbridges in the house. (The one in the living room doesn’t get much love, but my Library Soundbridge works hard – is working now, in fact.)

Back on October 28th, I mentioned that it was Buy Music Weekend for me. And I blamed poor gregmce for it. I’ve added quite a few MP3s to my collection as of that weekend, and not all of it Greg’s fault.

It started when he posted about the group Visqueen. He mentioned that they’d played at a show with Shonen Knife (good kitchen cleaning music) and my curiosity was piqued when he claimed he enjoyed Visqueen even more. So I listened to samples of their new album, and some of their older albums, and decided I liked the sound too. Being the completist that I am, I bought all of their albums.

I checked back on his comments later to find someone suggesting The Slants as well. I, once again, gave a listen and decided I liked. So I was up to 4 albums (so far, just downloads) for the weekend.

While searching, I decided to check on a couple of local groups that I’d wanted more music from. The Hammered Music Duo was a group I’d seen at the Piqua Heritage Festival and they play hammered dulcimers (among other instruments). Their Christmas album is one of my favorites, and some searching on Amazon located some non-Christmas CDs which they’d made (and were now out of print, but sold by used sellers). I ordered all of the ones I could locate, so was up to 7 albums purchased by now.

I also checked out Jim’s Red Pants for any recent releases. (They are a local folk group that loves to play unusual instruments whenever possible.) And found out they now had a Christmas album out (from last year – OK, so I don’t check online often enough). I e-mailed the group requesting prices for the Xmas CD and the compilation CD of their first two albums. Alas, no response there (yet), so I didn’t wind up with 8 & 9 yet.

That weekend was also one of the weekends that Rick Fannin was performing at O’Brians. I’d wanted to buy his CD the previous time I was there, but didn’t have the cash. So this time I made sure to bring enough moolah. And that night I got his CD (which he also autographed for me). There we go, album #8. Impressive music weekend, eh?

Unfortunately, that weekend wasn’t the end of my music buying. Thanks to VValtmouse‘s Lady Gaga obsession, I’d been hearing about her for awhile. And decided to listen to the samples from Amazon.com on the day of her album release. I decided that I liked it too. (Good, more kitchen cleaning music!) Unfortunately, I was only able to give the album one thorough listening to because it was now time for Christmas Music to dominate my music listening. Oh, and while I was buying that, I also bought a compilation album by the Steve Miller Band for $5. And Lady Gaga’s “Christmas Tree” song (which later wound up being free for the holidays – bummer, a buck wasted. Heh.)

Although I hadn’t been successful with Jim’s Red Pants at the time, I eventually got in touch with them thanks to the pastor at the UU church we sometimes attend. (He’s friends with the couple who are Jim’s Red Pants.) Although they were sold out of the compilation CD, they still had copies of the first album, so that and Snowbound, their Xmas CD, are now in my collection.

I figured that would be my only holiday album purchase this year. Ha ha, silly me. No, I listened to some of David Archuleta’s new Christmas album and liked his voice. So I bought it. Then later found out that iTunes had a free album of Christmas songs. So that was my first iTunes music purchase. (Burned ’em onto a CD then ripped them to MP3s so I could listen to ’em properly. iTunes sucks, you know.) And THEN found out that Straight No Chaser had not one, but two Christmas albums available online. (Visit my favorite YouTube video of theirs.)

I’ve decided I’m not going to bore you with the decision to rip my old DW audios (Docs 1 & 2) and other BBC Radio Dramas to MP3. Oh wait, I just did. Sorry! Thanks to that and my prior Big Finish audios and audiobooks, I’ve now got 30 DAYS worth of simply spoken word stories as MP3s.

So, like, I’ve got a ton of new music. Impulse buying of music has gotten WAY to easy with Amazon.com. Especially since I got the software to work just fine on my 64-bit Linux installation. Damn you Amazon.com! And your evil henchmen like Greg & Waltmouse! (Heh.)

S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G!

This last weekend was a fun one for socializing and shopping.

Friday was our annual teacher’s shopping trip (which, sadly, had been canceled last year). We had 6 of us that managed to get together to shop, starting at the bookstore in Troy and then visiting a number of local knick-knack shops. There were a few I’d not been to before. I bought stuff in most of the places; sadly most of it for me, rather than gifts for others.

After shopping, we ate at La Piazza and another coworker (actually, former coworker – she’s in Columbus now) joined us. The seven of us probably laughed all the time we weren’t eating. I have fun and funny coworkers!

I visited mom & dad afterward, since I was in their new hometown, and made plans for pancakes the next morning.

One of the local churches does an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast the first Saturday of the month during most of the year. (The church used to host the Kiwanis organization which did a breakfast every November. Kiwanis is now gone, but thankfully the breakfast lingers on.) So the folks came by (in the truck, to transport more stuff from their “Warehouse” (old house) to the new place). We walked to breakfast, then to the post office.

While at the church, I saw an ad for a local arts & crafts sale at the Bruckner Nature Center. I suggested that to the folks and they thought it would be fun. So once they’d loaded the truck with more antique furniture and deposited it at the new place, I took ’em to Bruckner. Wow, tons of cars there. But I found a nearby parking spot and we shopped.

And shopped. Man, there were a lot of local artists. They took up 3 floors of the nature center (often just in hallways between permanent exhibits). I saw plenty of people I knew. Even a former school friend – bought something off of her which I can’t say here since one of my friends on this list will be receiving the present. Anyhoo, lots of talented people in Miami County and other neighboring counties.

Yesterday was a lazy day. I cleaned (both Roomba and I vacuumed the place) and then worked on my thesis project. And that’s what I should be doing right now. Got cat on lap and Post-It notes ready. Just need to finish typing this up. Heh.

Those of you getting snow in the next few days – stay safe! (I’m not pleased by the promise of sleet. I intend to be oot & aboot tomorrow evening you know! Harry Potter 6 is on DVD!)

Query for Wii Owners

So I’ve been working on my Amazon.com Wishlist for a few days now (mom wanted her part of my list done in time for Cyber Monday) and one thing I think I’d like (and hopefully Judiang would like) is a nice Wi-Fi ready Wii game. It would be fun to play against (or with) Judi online with our respective Wiis.

Way back when she first coerced me to loving the game console (via purchasing it for herself and having me help set it up) we discussed Wi-Fi games and wondered if there was a decent Wi-Fi Tennis game. (We both enjoyed Tennis in WiiSports.) I read about one game that had good reviews for the tennis play aspect, but felt that the Wi-Fi was too laggy. So now I’m turning to my friends list for more ideas. (And if you have Wii-fanatic friends, please ask them for their opinion.)

What Wi-Fi enabled Wii games are out there that Judi and I should consider getting this season? Or is there something up & coming we should hold out for?

And in other Wii-related querydom… Thanks to purchasing the Internet Channel way back when I bought my own Wii, I now have the opportunity to get my 500 WiiPoints back by downloading one of their WiiConsole games for free. (It’s not all of the 500-point WiiConsole games, but most of ’em.) I already own Galaga (it was the no-brainer purchase back when I first installed the console), so I have to find something else to get for free. But I was never much of a console player, so I am unfamiliar with most of the games on the list. So again, I’ll take advice on WiiConsole games in the 500 point range which you’d recommend. (Examples: Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, Legend of Zelda & Zelda 2, Xevious). I was sad to discover that, yes, they finally added Dig Dug, but dammit, it’s 600 points. Tsk.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have for me or that you can elicit from your friends!