This is primarily for Kyle as we've been exchanging posts about Krampus. Atlas Obscura has a post on Monsters of Christmas including Krampus, Mari Lwyd, La Befana and Baboushka, Perchta, Straggele, The Tomten, Belsnickel, Pere Fouettard, Gryla, The Yule Lads including peg-legged Sheep Cote Clog (not to mention the horribly evil Sausage Swiper - Swiper, no swiping!), and The Yule Cat.
Atlas Obscura is great if you're like me and want to learn about Leprechaun museums (where they have Leprechaun lore, not as in it's run by Leprechauns) and strange statues. Just my sort of thing.
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Guest Link
Kyle pointed me at this article about Krampus-based erotica. That's a whole different world of strange.
"So if you've ever wondered what the glamorous life of an Internet comedy writer is like, imagine spending the better part of a Saturday reading a book about a woman blowing a Christmas goat monster while taking notes. Truly, I am living the dream. A very, very specific dream."
"So if you've ever wondered what the glamorous life of an Internet comedy writer is like, imagine spending the better part of a Saturday reading a book about a woman blowing a Christmas goat monster while taking notes. Truly, I am living the dream. A very, very specific dream."
Wednesday, December 04, 2013
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Heavy Lifting
I keep our Christmas tree up in the rafters of the garage. Not the pine variety. We got rid of that a long time ago in favor of a fabricated tree. Not to avoid mess. It still sheds needles. But to avoid the trip, selection, return trip, and maintenance of a real tree. I miss the smell a little, but there are pine trees near my house I can visit if I need a fix, and I can even haul some needles back if I need the smell.
According to my tree, which seems to get heavier every single year (I'm sure it is, it must be picking up something from the air or the ornaments), standing on a ladder and shoving it around on my own is not recommended. In the past, I didn't think too much of this warning. But this year, with the plated/screwed hip, standing on a ladder, balancing slightly backward while I gave it a shove onto the hanging planks, my leg gave me a warning that my years lofting it up there might be numbered or, at the very least, that I should heed the sign and come up with a new storage location. I don't think I'm in any danger of breaking the hip unless I fall. But I do suspect I'm in more danger of falling given that my leg seems to have shifted length a bit and I'm not as balanced as I once was. It's very seldom an issue. However, shoving heavy boxes over my head, and vigorously hopping out of bed in the morning, seem to be edge cases. The bed statement might be perplexing, but picture hopping up and getting going before your brain and body are really ready, which is often how I get going because I long ago convinced myself half the lying around in bed issue people seem to have is just not popping up as soon as you can. The result is a lean against the wall because my balance doesn't autocorrect quickly enough to tell me where my shoulder is in relation to the wall. Coupled with a malfunctioning Marvin the Martian anamatronic art hanging that sticks out a few inches that I now bump into now and then, I know for a fact I lean a little when I get up more than I used to (although the odd klutzy moment in the past had me bumping it, so it's not a unique experience, only different in terms of frequency).
I notice as well that I should get entirely different people to lift my tree box, because both of those guys seem to be much younger, more coiffed men.
According to my tree, which seems to get heavier every single year (I'm sure it is, it must be picking up something from the air or the ornaments), standing on a ladder and shoving it around on my own is not recommended. In the past, I didn't think too much of this warning. But this year, with the plated/screwed hip, standing on a ladder, balancing slightly backward while I gave it a shove onto the hanging planks, my leg gave me a warning that my years lofting it up there might be numbered or, at the very least, that I should heed the sign and come up with a new storage location. I don't think I'm in any danger of breaking the hip unless I fall. But I do suspect I'm in more danger of falling given that my leg seems to have shifted length a bit and I'm not as balanced as I once was. It's very seldom an issue. However, shoving heavy boxes over my head, and vigorously hopping out of bed in the morning, seem to be edge cases. The bed statement might be perplexing, but picture hopping up and getting going before your brain and body are really ready, which is often how I get going because I long ago convinced myself half the lying around in bed issue people seem to have is just not popping up as soon as you can. The result is a lean against the wall because my balance doesn't autocorrect quickly enough to tell me where my shoulder is in relation to the wall. Coupled with a malfunctioning Marvin the Martian anamatronic art hanging that sticks out a few inches that I now bump into now and then, I know for a fact I lean a little when I get up more than I used to (although the odd klutzy moment in the past had me bumping it, so it's not a unique experience, only different in terms of frequency).
I notice as well that I should get entirely different people to lift my tree box, because both of those guys seem to be much younger, more coiffed men.
Tuesday, January 08, 2013
The Death of Christmas
At one time, I considered photographing all our ornaments. But there are a lot of them. Too many. We add 3+ per year, so there isn't enough time. Ever. However, I will be keeping track of those ornaments that die a horrible death during each season so they can be remembered forever. Their passing may be due to broken strings and no standard eye to rethread. Broken or shattered bits. Plain old ugliness. Or a failure to ever remember why they were sentimental in the first place. If you gave us the ornament and you're irritated that it has been retired, remember, the cat broke it. It wasn't our fault.
It looks fine, but all the edging is worn off. You wouldn't give a present wrapped that way to a friend, so you shouldn't hang it on your tree. All you think about is a shabby Christmas.
It looks fine, but all the edging is worn off. You wouldn't give a present wrapped that way to a friend, so you shouldn't hang it on your tree. All you think about is a shabby Christmas.
Poor jigsaw Santa. His hat defined him. Now he's just some fat man trying to hug children without their permission.
He probably should have died 20 years ago. He was just persistent. He's been punched in his eyes made out of coal so many times they've become diamonds. Who puts legs on their snowmen? That's not even in the Frosty cartoon or Doctor Who Versus the Snowmen. Maybe I should have painted icicle teeth on him and added a snowglobe nearby and told Eryn it was a Doctor Who theme.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Passing the torch (for the tree)
This year Eryn decided she was in charge of setting up the Christmas tree. She's familiar with the color coding scheme involved in our fauxvergreen, and she's plenty tall, so she didn't want any help. As a bonus, she's much more conscientious about bending the ends of the fronds so they're fluffed out and ornament ready.
Level one!
Getting taller. The glasses had to come off.
The top! She does still need the step stool.
The tree. Not yet finalized. I'm sure my shoddy lighting work is evident in this picture when you check out all the non-lighted gaps. Our old lights are slowly burning out and I'm too lazy to fix them by investigating them one at a time, so I moved to some LED lights last night but didn't get enough. Two strands was at least one strand short, maybe more. And I still have to remove the old lights. Some rework is necessary. But I'm on agile projects, so this is just Iteration 0.
That large package is the very first Christmas present under the tree. I ordered it early, so now Eryn has to look at it for a month. It's driving her a bit nuts.
Here's Eryn at work:
and stage 2...
Level one!
Getting taller. The glasses had to come off.
The top! She does still need the step stool.
The tree. Not yet finalized. I'm sure my shoddy lighting work is evident in this picture when you check out all the non-lighted gaps. Our old lights are slowly burning out and I'm too lazy to fix them by investigating them one at a time, so I moved to some LED lights last night but didn't get enough. Two strands was at least one strand short, maybe more. And I still have to remove the old lights. Some rework is necessary. But I'm on agile projects, so this is just Iteration 0.
That large package is the very first Christmas present under the tree. I ordered it early, so now Eryn has to look at it for a month. It's driving her a bit nuts.
Here's Eryn at work:
and stage 2...
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Secret Santa
I was amused to see a Secret Santa app out on The Code Project: Drawing Names (A Christmas Name Drawing Application by ZachCox). I too have a Secret Santa program. But it's in VB. Not VB.NET. But actual VB - I wrote it in...checking...November 2000. I've never brought myself to update it to a new language because it works fine in VB and I never felt like updating the code to handle the new style of dynamically creating controls which worked really well with control arrays in the old VB COM world so you could easily add new rows to the UI.
The programs look suspiciously alike. Mine worries about who your spouse is as well. And it worries about who you had last year and avoids duplicating your match up two years in a row. It also relies on an XML configuration file (savable year to year). And it mails a notice to every participant (via Outlook, I was lazy). But it doesn't have nearly as much code as ZachCox's - I think 20% of my code is loading the XML and 20% is testing code, and 30% is the automated VB form code. The primary code file is all of 19K. The compiled app is 32K. The most important bit of code in my opinion is the following...
Yep, bit of hardcoding. Basically, if it gets through the whole list, and is on the last match, and it just can't make it work after 50 tries plus the size of the list, it scraps everything and starts over from scratch. So it can run for a very long time if it has to start over repeatedly, or you set it up to fail by making someone the spouse of everyone. But in thirteen years of running it, sometimes repeatedly for testing purposes, it's never taken more than a few minutes to run my whole family plus any guest family attending Christmas that year. In this case, brute force of the logic works like a charm.
That said, every year I ponder rewriting it in C# and perhaps making it so people can log in and create lists. And every year I realize it's the holidays and I'd rather go Christmas shopping, visit Christmas displays, and do anything else. Just more proof that I'm a very utilitarian coder who uses code solely to solve his own problems.
The programs look suspiciously alike. Mine worries about who your spouse is as well. And it worries about who you had last year and avoids duplicating your match up two years in a row. It also relies on an XML configuration file (savable year to year). And it mails a notice to every participant (via Outlook, I was lazy). But it doesn't have nearly as much code as ZachCox's - I think 20% of my code is loading the XML and 20% is testing code, and 30% is the automated VB form code. The primary code file is all of 19K. The compiled app is 32K. The most important bit of code in my opinion is the following...
Do Until indivSecond <> indivFirst If iTrys > UBound(people2(), 2) + 50 Then . . .Yep, bit of hardcoding. Basically, if it gets through the whole list, and is on the last match, and it just can't make it work after 50 tries plus the size of the list, it scraps everything and starts over from scratch. So it can run for a very long time if it has to start over repeatedly, or you set it up to fail by making someone the spouse of everyone. But in thirteen years of running it, sometimes repeatedly for testing purposes, it's never taken more than a few minutes to run my whole family plus any guest family attending Christmas that year. In this case, brute force of the logic works like a charm.
That said, every year I ponder rewriting it in C# and perhaps making it so people can log in and create lists. And every year I realize it's the holidays and I'd rather go Christmas shopping, visit Christmas displays, and do anything else. Just more proof that I'm a very utilitarian coder who uses code solely to solve his own problems.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Santa and a Very Giraffey Christmas
Santa left Eryn a giraffe hat. A giraffe pillow. And a half-eaten cookie.
At Grandpa Larry and Grandma Geri's, he showed up in person to deliver additional gifts.
At Grandpa Larry and Grandma Geri's, he showed up in person to deliver additional gifts.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
I wanted an iPhone...
Felicia Day pointed me at these links via Laughing Squid:
Disgruntled people complaining about their Christmas gifts on Twitter... Compiled by Jon Hendren.
Below, Jonathan Mann turns it into a song...WTF?! I Wanted An iPhone!!!
Disgruntled people complaining about their Christmas gifts on Twitter... Compiled by Jon Hendren.
Below, Jonathan Mann turns it into a song...WTF?! I Wanted An iPhone!!!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Santa...
...apparently stays at the Grandstay Hotel and Conference Center when he's visiting Burnsville. And he likes to promote that fact. And he's sponsored by Buck Hill and John Adamich's Dodge of Burnsville. John needs to change his logo, because his d backed to a b (dodge of burnsville) looks like two balls and a wang shooting a small o of jizz out the end. Apparently, it's been worse than just a visual (link to blog).
Sunday, November 27, 2011
It's a Chuck Norris Christmas
It's a Chuck Norris Christmas. He and his enemy, the Red Ninja, have found common ground on our Christmas tree to celebrate peace and goodwill. Well done you two. You give hope to humankind.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Kyle's Christmas Sake Cup - 1750
We got Kyle another sake cup for Christmas this year, so now he officially has a collection. The way I figure it, if he ever wants to go on some sort of midlife bender, a collection of historic sake cups won't lose their value and should be able to fund a nice vacation. Or perhaps he can impress a mail-order Japanese bride with them. And they look pretty on a shelf until then. I suspect they're cool for drinking sake from as well, although perhaps he feels nervous drinking out of something older than the United States. I would.
In case his nephew isn't suitably impressed, he should point out that this is a mystical cup that appeases Gojira and keeps the world safe. Then again, maybe not. Depending on how much J. wants to see Godzilla in person.
I wanted to put the details out here, so Kyle can find them if he ever needs them.
Blue and White Ko Imari Soba Choko Cup Mid 18c (see below - estimated 1750).
"The size of Soba Choko: 3" Dia x 2 3/8" High. Japanese Blue and White(Sometsuke) Porcelain Soba Choko Cup from 18 century. The Soba Choko cup is made from finely made porcelain body with straight line. It has Ichimatsu pattern and mesh design pattern. It is simply yet attractive design. The condition of Cup is very good, there is no crack and no hairline, except noting there are some foot rim with some Kamadashi Ato(original kiln flaw spots when removed from kiln) and old nicks. You can see from photos. Otherwise excellent condition. The age of Soba Choko from mid 18 century around 1750 (Horeki Period, Middle Edo) which we guarantee the age."
In case his nephew isn't suitably impressed, he should point out that this is a mystical cup that appeases Gojira and keeps the world safe. Then again, maybe not. Depending on how much J. wants to see Godzilla in person.
I wanted to put the details out here, so Kyle can find them if he ever needs them.
Blue and White Ko Imari Soba Choko Cup Mid 18c (see below - estimated 1750).
"The size of Soba Choko: 3" Dia x 2 3/8" High. Japanese Blue and White(Sometsuke) Porcelain Soba Choko Cup from 18 century. The Soba Choko cup is made from finely made porcelain body with straight line. It has Ichimatsu pattern and mesh design pattern. It is simply yet attractive design. The condition of Cup is very good, there is no crack and no hairline, except noting there are some foot rim with some Kamadashi Ato(original kiln flaw spots when removed from kiln) and old nicks. You can see from photos. Otherwise excellent condition. The age of Soba Choko from mid 18 century around 1750 (Horeki Period, Middle Edo) which we guarantee the age."
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Some late Christmas tunage
Nathan Fillion (of Serenity) shared this link for North Point's iBand:
Which in turn led me to this post at Fandomania about 12 Songs for a Geeky Christmas. I like Chris Hardwick's hair band tune "All I Want for Christmas (is to Rock) by Sniper" (very Jack Black), the microphone with Christmas Balls and the Axel Rose shimmy are nice touches.
And I think Kyle's nephew will appreciate the Doctor Who cast singing a Christmas Carol:
Which in turn led me to this post at Fandomania about 12 Songs for a Geeky Christmas. I like Chris Hardwick's hair band tune "All I Want for Christmas (is to Rock) by Sniper" (very Jack Black), the microphone with Christmas Balls and the Axel Rose shimmy are nice touches.
And I think Kyle's nephew will appreciate the Doctor Who cast singing a Christmas Carol:
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Friday, December 24, 2010
Almost Merry Christmas
My family celebrates Christmas eve tonight. I'm pondering how that's going to go down with the kitchen still full of ornaments, wrapping paper, sewing machine paraphernalia and guitars. Maybe we'll just do annual fondue on the floor.
Here's some Christmasy cheer from Jed Whedon and Maurissa (Mo) Tancharoen (Jed's wife, and cowriter on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog):
Here's some Christmasy cheer from Jed Whedon and Maurissa (Mo) Tancharoen (Jed's wife, and cowriter on Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog):
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Happy Christmas
Courtesy of a tweet from Felicia Day. Eryn thought it was hilarious.
Happy Holidays from DANIELS on Vimeo.
Happy Holidays from DANIELS on Vimeo.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
It's a Nice Day for a Spock Wedding...
If targeted marketing really worked, this would have shown up on my front step with a bill from Hallmark, because they would have known I'd buy it, even at a semi-ridiculous cost. What do Spock and Kirk fighting have to do with Christmas? Absolutely nothing...but it makes me happy and it will find a place of honor on our tree next to Eryn's Harry Potter pensieve ornament.
As a bonus, if you've never heard this before, I'm offering it up for everyone's enjoyment. I don't know who made it because I can't find it anywhere on the web and, according to the file date, I downloaded it in 2000. It may have actually been before that - 2000 could just have been the day on which I moved it to the "new" computer when we lived in Richfield.
Spock Wedding
Scooter's new Hallmark ornament:
As a bonus, if you've never heard this before, I'm offering it up for everyone's enjoyment. I don't know who made it because I can't find it anywhere on the web and, according to the file date, I downloaded it in 2000. It may have actually been before that - 2000 could just have been the day on which I moved it to the "new" computer when we lived in Richfield.
Spock Wedding
Scooter's new Hallmark ornament:
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Holiday Photos
The holidays were busy. I was recovering from surgery, my folks were in town, and we had family pictures, Macy's, my niece's first birthday, Colin's birthday, other birthdays, Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas afternoon, New Year's... Nonstop festivities. So here are a few photos for the family.
I wasn't at this event. I was laying at home on the couch in a percoset fugue. Adele is checking out the sword I made for her Korean toll (?) where she picks an item and it determines her future. The sword wasn't the first item picked, despite my effort to make it very shiny and attractive to babies. Apparently I should have coated it with chocolate as well, because it doesn't look like it tastes all that good. I did send along some Hostess Cupcakes in case there was a repeat of the carrot birthday cake fiasco.
I can't believe my sword tasted worse than a used toilet stopper. Nasty.
We had the family photos at the Walker Sculpture Garden. Not in front of the big cherry, but in the arboretum area with the big glass fish. The photographer wanted me to help move some planters and I had to explain that moving concrete blocks was off my list after surgery. After the pictures, we went to Macy's to see the elves living in Santa's workshop display. Eryn and Ame' wore their matching dresses. However, Eryn later took a tumble on the escalator which ensured that her holey, bloody tights in no way matched Ame's.
Ame' doesn't get a lot of candy at her house. Grandma indulged her at Macy's. She's the Charlton Heston of candy fiends. You'd have to pry those bones out of her cold dead hands if you wanted to take them away.
Eryn at the company Christmas party meeting with the Clauses.
And one reindeer.
And getting her picture taken in front of the poinsettia tree.
Christmas before Christmas Eve. We opened our presents so we didn't have to haul them north of the cities and haul them back again. A good idea as the car was full on the way home. In this photo, Eryn is confused because she's just gotten a big bag full of rocks. Several of them.
Ah...a rock polisher. A real one that's designed to run forever and ever, not a Discovery Channel piece of crap which broke after three days and which my wife has hidden somewhere in the house so I don't have to look at it so there's no possibility of a divorce over my irritation with junk in the house and her irritation that I'm obsessed with getting rid of junk in the house, even that junk which she feels might not be junk.
All of which reminds me, it's (the new one) been running downstairs for a week and it's probably time to check the rocks.
Christmas Eve. My mother learning how to play Raving Rabbits on the Wii.
Ame's most hated game on the Wii. Raving Rabbits' pull the worms out of the rabbits teeth game. Only slightly less scary than Artie's new remote controlled brontosaurus.
A tap dancing fairy princess ballerina vetinarian. At least if you asked Lemony Snickett. Adele is somewhere under that pile of Jurassic Park.
Grandpa gets a hug for electronic battleship. And yes, my brother's tree does have some sort of problem that might best be solved by dropping some viagara in the water resevoir.
Artie wants to know where my face went. I'm wearing that hoody right now. It's creepy and super comfortable. If it were managerial, it would be perfect.
Christmas morning. Eryn is excited about the second part of the Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe series she got from Santa. She'd been wanting it since long before it came out. I don't believe, 12 days later, that she's watched it end to end yet.
Christmas afternoon. Cousin Max sporting his Obama shirt and talking to Santa.
I wasn't at this event. I was laying at home on the couch in a percoset fugue. Adele is checking out the sword I made for her Korean toll (?) where she picks an item and it determines her future. The sword wasn't the first item picked, despite my effort to make it very shiny and attractive to babies. Apparently I should have coated it with chocolate as well, because it doesn't look like it tastes all that good. I did send along some Hostess Cupcakes in case there was a repeat of the carrot birthday cake fiasco.
I can't believe my sword tasted worse than a used toilet stopper. Nasty.
We had the family photos at the Walker Sculpture Garden. Not in front of the big cherry, but in the arboretum area with the big glass fish. The photographer wanted me to help move some planters and I had to explain that moving concrete blocks was off my list after surgery. After the pictures, we went to Macy's to see the elves living in Santa's workshop display. Eryn and Ame' wore their matching dresses. However, Eryn later took a tumble on the escalator which ensured that her holey, bloody tights in no way matched Ame's.
Ame' doesn't get a lot of candy at her house. Grandma indulged her at Macy's. She's the Charlton Heston of candy fiends. You'd have to pry those bones out of her cold dead hands if you wanted to take them away.
Eryn at the company Christmas party meeting with the Clauses.
And one reindeer.
And getting her picture taken in front of the poinsettia tree.
Christmas before Christmas Eve. We opened our presents so we didn't have to haul them north of the cities and haul them back again. A good idea as the car was full on the way home. In this photo, Eryn is confused because she's just gotten a big bag full of rocks. Several of them.
Ah...a rock polisher. A real one that's designed to run forever and ever, not a Discovery Channel piece of crap which broke after three days and which my wife has hidden somewhere in the house so I don't have to look at it so there's no possibility of a divorce over my irritation with junk in the house and her irritation that I'm obsessed with getting rid of junk in the house, even that junk which she feels might not be junk.
All of which reminds me, it's (the new one) been running downstairs for a week and it's probably time to check the rocks.
Christmas Eve. My mother learning how to play Raving Rabbits on the Wii.
Ame's most hated game on the Wii. Raving Rabbits' pull the worms out of the rabbits teeth game. Only slightly less scary than Artie's new remote controlled brontosaurus.
A tap dancing fairy princess ballerina vetinarian. At least if you asked Lemony Snickett. Adele is somewhere under that pile of Jurassic Park.
Grandpa gets a hug for electronic battleship. And yes, my brother's tree does have some sort of problem that might best be solved by dropping some viagara in the water resevoir.
Artie wants to know where my face went. I'm wearing that hoody right now. It's creepy and super comfortable. If it were managerial, it would be perfect.
Christmas morning. Eryn is excited about the second part of the Lion, The Witch and Wardrobe series she got from Santa. She'd been wanting it since long before it came out. I don't believe, 12 days later, that she's watched it end to end yet.
Christmas afternoon. Cousin Max sporting his Obama shirt and talking to Santa.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Family Photo Blogging
I need to catch up on a few pictures of the kids for friends and family that read the blog. So today's post will be pictures from before the holidays and tomorrow's post will be pictures from the holidays. I'd have posted these some time ago, but the whole surgery debacle interrupted my normal picture commentary.
I could blog about the Vikings game instead, as I was there last night with Ming, Mike and Adam, but the less said about that whole mess the better. I should append that my favorite exchange of the evening was in the men's bathroom where an Eagles fan bellowed during a very crowded halftime, "The Eagles' fans are in the bathroom!" Followed closely by "That's where assholes belong." Followed shortly thereafter by the first voice exclaiming, "Hey, don't push me, I'm peeing!"
Ming and Eryn fighting after the pizza event. This is why there are video games. So no one loses an eye. Unless it's from a flying Wii remote.
Eryn, me and Colin at the Minnesota Children's Museum sorting food tiles. I was biking 30 miles a day the day before this picture, so I look pretty healthy. I need to get back in a groove, because I don't feel that healthy now.
Eryn got to take home the class mascot, Sparky. Sparky has a journal and Eryn filled several pages with pictures of Sparky's adventures. There was a previous picture of Sparky in a coffin at a geocache, but that was only part of his weekend. He also attended a birthday party and ate a donut.
And wrestled under the Christmas tree.
And listened to a book about sharks. Eryn has since had those bangs reduced.
And he rode a giant ant. If I was a giant ant, I'd eat Sparky. But maybe this isn't a bear eating ant. It's not a siafu as it has eyes.
Sparky gets a massage after a stressful weekend.
Sparky and Eryn listen to Pooteewheet read Harry Potter. They're now on The Halfblood Prince.
The wrestling over, it's time to pose for a Christmas picture. To everyone that was expecting a Christmas letter from me, this will have to do. I'm just not very good at Christmas letters, and there are almost 500 posts out here every year. If you haven't found opportunity to read yourself nauseous about my family, you're just not trying.
Conner blowing out the candles on his cake at the Children's Museum. I like this picture because just before it there was some concern that there were no candles for the cake. Conner's mom noted that this would result in a "pretend blow". I hate those.
Eryn playing Castle Wars on the computer. A very simple card game that works great for kids. Make your castle bigger than 100 levels. Or make the other person's castle smaller than 1 level. She goes back to it frequently, so it must maintain some of it's fun factor.
I could blog about the Vikings game instead, as I was there last night with Ming, Mike and Adam, but the less said about that whole mess the better. I should append that my favorite exchange of the evening was in the men's bathroom where an Eagles fan bellowed during a very crowded halftime, "The Eagles' fans are in the bathroom!" Followed closely by "That's where assholes belong." Followed shortly thereafter by the first voice exclaiming, "Hey, don't push me, I'm peeing!"
Ming and Eryn fighting after the pizza event. This is why there are video games. So no one loses an eye. Unless it's from a flying Wii remote.
Eryn, me and Colin at the Minnesota Children's Museum sorting food tiles. I was biking 30 miles a day the day before this picture, so I look pretty healthy. I need to get back in a groove, because I don't feel that healthy now.
Eryn got to take home the class mascot, Sparky. Sparky has a journal and Eryn filled several pages with pictures of Sparky's adventures. There was a previous picture of Sparky in a coffin at a geocache, but that was only part of his weekend. He also attended a birthday party and ate a donut.
And wrestled under the Christmas tree.
And listened to a book about sharks. Eryn has since had those bangs reduced.
And he rode a giant ant. If I was a giant ant, I'd eat Sparky. But maybe this isn't a bear eating ant. It's not a siafu as it has eyes.
Sparky gets a massage after a stressful weekend.
Sparky and Eryn listen to Pooteewheet read Harry Potter. They're now on The Halfblood Prince.
The wrestling over, it's time to pose for a Christmas picture. To everyone that was expecting a Christmas letter from me, this will have to do. I'm just not very good at Christmas letters, and there are almost 500 posts out here every year. If you haven't found opportunity to read yourself nauseous about my family, you're just not trying.
Conner blowing out the candles on his cake at the Children's Museum. I like this picture because just before it there was some concern that there were no candles for the cake. Conner's mom noted that this would result in a "pretend blow". I hate those.
Eryn playing Castle Wars on the computer. A very simple card game that works great for kids. Make your castle bigger than 100 levels. Or make the other person's castle smaller than 1 level. She goes back to it frequently, so it must maintain some of it's fun factor.
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