The Best Christmas Gift

I tell ya, this is an awesome little gizmo.
I posted a video of Bree yesterday that I took with this.
I plan to make plenty more annoying video posts...just a fair warning.
***
It was a great holiday. I got some excellent gifts, gave some excellent gifts, got to visit my ladies (Tree,Bree,Awesome), and got to enjoy some time away from work. What more can you ask for?

VID00016.AVI

Headless Bree showing her Christmas spirit with some fancy dance moves!

I just got Bree to bed about 15 minutes ago.
She's so pumped about Santa that she kept giggling like a...well...like a little girl.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
Theresa, Bryanna, Mary (Theresa's mother), Patty (Theresa's other mother), and of course Awesome Marsha will all be under one roof!

All them ladies and just one me. What more can a guy ask for?

Merry Christmas Eve, everyone.

Bald Spots From Christmas

Ok I've had it.
Christmas has become way too much of a hassle over the years.
Last year things were hectic and hard to enjoy.
So this year I had made a promise that all the driving, whackiness with carting presents all over town, and being worn out from stress was not going to happen again.
Well. Things are looking just as "up in the air" as last year for everyone.
Christmas must just be punishment.
So next year I am going to be like the Kranks and just boycott the holiday.
For this year, I'm just going to deal with it.
Ho Ho, muther-F-ing H0.

I'll miss Britt.
She was very underrated.
***

It's cold outside, and the traffic is noisy on my street.

I just watched "The Pursuit of Crappyness" and thought it was just as much a crapfest as when I first saw it in the theater.

At least Bree is behaving. She's actually been really good lately.

That's pretty much a summation of my life these days.

Annual Engineering Xmas Lunch

Today was the annual Christmas lunch for the engineering department. We went to Oscar's, keeping up with the tradition.
It was nice to have all the engineers (minus Steve G.) in one spot to enjoy a nice meal and a couple of brews together.

It's really nice to be able to forget about work for a while. In truth, this was the first time I was able to do that. The two previous lunches I was constantly thinking about work and found it hard to enjoy the camaraderie.

I think Steve pays out of pocket.

Thank you, Steve. And Merry Christmas.

***

A highlight of the event was Dudick. He sat on the side of the table opposite from me. When he noticed the waitress was very well endowed and her...umm...endowments kept bumping into people on my side while she served us....he remarked:

"If I would have known it would be like that, I would have sat on THAT side".

I love the Dudick. He is king.

Retainer

Today I made the journey to the ortho to see what the damage would be for a new retainer.
150.00 is what it will cost for a new one. However, since I am so close to the end of this phase, they recommended I just buy the final retainer and use this one until it breaks.
So rather than 150.00 now, and 300.00 later, I just had to pay the 300.00.

A stiffer bill than I wanted. But it's better than 450.00 overall.

Braces have been one of the most expensive things I've ever done. Grand total with visits, hardware, and gas costs is now well over 7,000.00.

***

Thanks for the early gift!

Awesome Marsha sent an early Christmas gift in the mail.
I think it's pretty neat, and plan to read the book this week.
Even better - it comes with the songs on a CD. Thanks, Mom!
***

If you haven't seen this movie, you may want to.
It's a pretty moving story.
I'm glad I bought this one.
***

Don't Fart In Chest Waders

Dudick is an avid fly fisherman.
Today he and Brett were having a conversation about hip waders and chest waders.
Dudick remarked that you don't want to fart in chest waders.
After thinking it over, it made a lot of sense.

XMAS TREE

Bree helped with the tee this year. I think this is the most pumped she has been in quite some time.
Yes, that is a Halloween shirt she has on. So what...I mean Halloween rocks. So Why not rock the Halloween gear during the Christmas season?
I think people should wear Halloween costumes on Christmas day. That would be cool.

Above is the tree in near-complete form. Bree was telling me it was the prettiest tree ever because she is the best decorator ever.
Hmmm. Evidently she has a big head already. Nothing wrong with that.

This was the most fun, as well as the biggest pain in the ass, I've ever had decorating the tree (thanks, Bree).
***

Well I put my tree up last night, and today I strung the lights on. It seems like I get it done later and later each year.
I also sorted through my decorations last night to see which ones I was going to hang. Some are really old and have just taken too much of a beating over the years and need repair. I repaired some of them with my hot glue gun today. Others are beyond repair.
It was sad to discover a really old bulb from the 50's broken. It had been on my tree every year for as long as I can remember. But, the rest of the good ones are still ok so at least I still have all of them.
Tonight Bree is going to help me decorate it, and I'm looking forward to it. It's these odd little things that I look forward to in life.
***

Sweet Home Alabama

Play That Dead Band's Song

Turn Those Speakers Up Full Blast

Play It All Night Long

***

Just something that gets stuck in my head frequently.
I still wish he were alive, over 6 years after his death.

evidently hell has started freezing over tonight.

yesterday was a bad day...today was better

Well yesterday was a rough day.
I spent all day working on an electrical wireway layout for the big press my company is building.
I was full of confidence because I had done the same thing for another press we built a year ago. Oh, plus it's not that hard of a thing to do...and easy things are right up my alley.

Well fate would have things take an odd twist. After a while I started to notice things not quite adding up when I would go into the shop to double check measurements from the drawing.

After a while I had to get the guy that did the drawings I was working off of, and the conclusion was that something must be wrong with the drawing. Sure enough, the entire drawing he had made somehow had been scaled wrong. So....basically all my work for the day was totally scrap.

Bummer.

Needless to say, I worked very late in order to get a new game plan for starting today.

Then I was off to home to gather things for spending the night at Theresa's. We had a movie night planned, which is no surprise since I'm the movie guy and since meeting me she has probably watched more movies than all her previous years added together.

I walk in the door and immediately it smelled like somebody had taken a big dump in the middle of my living room floor. I mean whoa, it was a nasty funk.

I went to both of my bathrooms in search of poo, but didn't find any. Then I looked in every other room and didn't find any. I did, however, notice the smell getting stronger as I neared the door out to the garage. When I opened the door I opened vomited on the spot.

It was totally rank in there. It turns out I forgot a bag of garbage that had turkey in it from Thanksgiving. I guess it decided on that night to start stanking up a storm.......(it is odd that the garage smelled like dead turkey while in the house I thought it smelled like a dumparoo...that might tell you a bit about when I drop a doo - HA!)

Bummer Bummer.

I bagged it and sprayed air freshener all over the house.

Then I went over to Theresa's (with the nasty bags to put in her garbage, thank you Tree).

I noticed my retainer wasn't in my mouth and that I must have left it at home, so I had to go back.

After getting back home I was cleaning it before putting it in, and noticed it was cracked.

Bummer Bummer Bummer.

Christmas Party 2009 Review

This was the second year in a row for Theresa and I attending my company's Christmas party.
We definitely partied it up.
All the big names were present (except for High Chief Squatting Dog), and so everyone joked and acted a fool and had a great time...mostly at my expense.

There was some boogying on the dance floor, an endless supply of beer, and an even greater supply of cheesy holiday cheer.
I hope next year is as good, if not better than this year's party.

***

the winter. more snow to come.
tons more snow.

bree is ready for winter

she looks like an abominable snow girl.

there's a new big dog in town for plowing snow in erie.
ahem.
***

Snow Is Sticking (Again)

I think last week there was a half an inch of snow that fell in this area and it stuck to the ground for a few hours.
Well, it had since melted.
This time it just might stick.
***

You're Gonna Love My Nuts

If you haven't seen the slap chop rap...go to youtube and look it up.
It will change your life...and you'll love his nuts.

Xmas Shopping

Last night I had my first night of Christmas shopping for the year.
It was hectic. I kept getting phone calls while I was weaving in and out of people in the mall. It took absolutely forever to buy anything. Everyone was in a pissy mood.
Yep, the holidays are here.
It's ok, though. I still had fun. The best part is, I got most of my shopping done in one night.
I wonder if other people are having as much fun as I am.

Dudick came into my cubicle and asked me if I had bought a bracelet for his wife yet.
This was intriguing to me, so I replied that I didn't know that I was supposed to.
He then proceeds to tell me that he needs to buy his wife some Pandora bracelet, but the nearest dealer is all the way out in Meadville.
After looking into the matter with him, I discovered a closer dealer in Erie for him.
He was so happy that he actually smiled.
Holy crap, Dudick smiled!

Distractions Of The Holidays

The Zman decorated his cubicle over the weekend. This is the view from mine.
His lights are distracting the hell out of me.
Cripes.