What's That Smell?

Nov 29, 2007

Santa's Helper

I like shopping. Even more so than Hotness.
In fact, I've been known to do other people's shopping for them.
But when it comes to Christmas shopping, I get more and more burned-out by it every year.

This year I think I'm going to try and get all (or most, anyway) of my gifts online.
I have them sent to work, wrap them during lunch break or at home while Hotness is at the barn with her horse.
I don't need to drive around, trying to find a parking spot and avoiding the rude shoppers in the stores. No carrying bags from the car to the house hoping she doesn't see what I bought.
(Oh honey, is that a Victoria's Secret bag you just brought in with you? *blink-blink*)

Anyway, I thought I'd offer some help to those of you who feel the same or just don't know what to get people on your list.

If you have friends or loved ones who are very 'Earth-friendly', there are a couple of places online to help you find the right eco-happy present.

One place is Treehugger.com.
It's kind of a "granola" type information site, but they have a great list of helpful ideas to providing environmentally-sound gifts.

Or you can go to WasteFreeHolidays.com.
Give gifts that don't involve adding to our landfills with garbage. Give an experience instead.
Lots of great ideas for things to do that don't involve packaging, gift wrap and all the trash associated with opening presents on Christmas.
How about tickets to a concert or a theater play? Or maybe go to a sporting event?
Heck! You could even give your friends the gift of learning the bagpipes!
They have lots of different topics to choose from, and many of the companies listed offer discounts for buying them during the Holidays.

Of course, I'm not saying you shouldn't buy presents.
I'm just offering some ideas for those who don't want to shop or know what to get this year.

If you are getting presents, but don't have gift boxes for them, you can get something unique to put it in.
The Onion has an online store where you can buy gift boxes of bogus products.
Like this one:

Anyway, I hope this helps.
Happy Holiday shopping to you!

Nov 27, 2007

Disabled

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are now controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits." — Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s

Sorry if you tried to watch some of the videos I have posted on here and can't.
I had some trouble with YouTube and had to disable them.

Nov 25, 2007

More Rock Band

Hey, just so you know....
Even though we're rockin' out, we did sound better than this:

This is just painful to watch!
See more of these here.

Games, Games, Games

Saturday was spent playing games all day. Yes. ALL. FREAKING. DAY.
I got up in the morning and went to my friend Kevin's house to play Guitar Hero and Heroclix with his kids for the day.

We had a 4-person slug-fest against eacher (which I lost... yet again) and then played some Guitar Hero. And played a quick 3-person Heroclix wrasslin' match. Followed by more Guitar Hero.... eh, you get the picture.
It began around 10:30 a.m. or so and went on until around 4:30 p.m.
Then I packed up my stuff and headed north a few miles to meet up with my comic shop buddies to play more video games on Xbox 360.

I hung out at the Comic Stop for about an hour and then went over to join the group to start rocking out.
We all met at George's place (heh heh, while he was still at the store!) for a little, impromptu Rock Band party.

Munchies were waiting for me when I got there (which is good since I hadn't eaten much earlier in the day), including cupcakes! Mmmm.. yum!

Well, you all know of my love for Guitar Hero (and this is the same group who introduced me to it... those scoundrels!) so it should come as no surpise that this was just as much fun to play.
It's great since you can include a group, not just one or two people, per turn. We had up to five band members at any given time;
1) singer /vocalist
2) guitar
3) bass
4) drums
5) footpedal drum (for those not coordinated enough to handle ALL the drums by themself)

I did some furious fret-work* on the guitar and bass and was the designated footpedal drum pusher for a few songs, although I didn't actually play the drums.
And yes.... I did sing.
Luckily it wasn't caught on video and there don't seem to be any incriminating pictures of me floating around the world wide interweb, but I did vocal duty on just one song: "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" by The Clash.

I'm hoping nobody lost their hearing the next morning after I was finished.

Others were not so lucky, though, and here is some video and pictures of them:

Here's Bizeau's wife singing "Highway Star"

And Bizeau, himself, singing "Run For The Hills"

(I'm sorry about the crappy sound quality, but it's my camera phone. That's about the best it's going to be)

Also, we got a rare appearance by the Demon-Nacho's parental units:

In the meantime, those who awaited their 15 minutes of rock fame spent the time just chillaxin'.

I don't know how long the rockin' went on, but I finally had to call it a night around 1:30 a.m. It was still about an hour's drive back to my house, and with it being foggy and in the freezing temps, I didn't want to be too tired to make it back in one piece. (Which I obviously did since I'm posting about it)

I really enjoyed myself and I think the game is a ton of fun, but I doubt I'll be getting it for the PS2. I don't have enough people in my neck of the woods to play it with and Hotness isn't really all that into it.

I think I'll stick with Guitar Hero and join the band over at George's every now and then.

Rock On!

* Granted, my "furious fret-work" was on Medium Difficulty Level, but at least I kept it up over 90% for the songs I played. (heh heh... I said "kept it up"!)

Bounce Around

The day after Thanksgiving, we celebrated my niece's 2nd birthday.

A bunch of her play friends and quite a few of us adults spent the morning at Kidz Bounce just, well... bouncing around and having a great time.
It's a fun workout and the hour we spent there went by w-a-y too quickly!

I got into one of the play structures with a bunch of the kids and then proceeded to launch them into the air by doing cannonballs onto the 'floor'.

There was an obstacle course you could race through, and I got challenged at least three different times by the kids. (Not to mention I helped chase a few through that weren't expecting it!)

It is a very fun place to take your kids for the day to wear them out.

After that the Natster went home to open her birthday presents.

A fun day to be a kid!
Happy Birthday Natalie!

Post Turkey-Day

I trust that everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and that you all had a good time.

Hotness & I spent the Holiday in town with our friends, Dug & Debbie and their daughter, along with a couple other friends. There was food aplenty, and pies waiting for afterwards.

The 7 of us finished eating and then waited long enough until we could fit some pie (oh, yeah.. and cheesecake) in for dessert. About that time we were joined by some more friends for the post-dinner pie feast.
A lovely day with beautiful weather and great company to be shared. I hope yours was just as pleasant.

Here is a small batch of pictures from our day:

Proper T-Day eating requires training. Here is Natalie warming up with a pre-feast nap.

In the country, even the cows are included in the festivities.

Rarrrr!!! (We had to hide the children from her)

Mmmm.... pie!

A little theater to go along with our dinner, courtesy of the Lovely Ladies of Shady Lane.