Happy Holidays

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Due to the windstorm, and a lot of snow at the cabin this year, the decision to have the family Christmas at my house somehow made it to the top of the list of "good choices".

Overall, I can't say that it was bad at all. I did have to scramble a bit (as I didn't have even a 2nd bed ready in the house, and I just might have needed 2 extra). Also, I hadn't installed any blinds in the other bedrooms - a little thing you don't realize how nice they are until you don't have them around.

So, despite not having basting brush, Pam, or some easier serving platers - things went relatively smooth.

Onto the Thank Yous:

Nicole got me a really nice pub table for the house, and a bran new robe. (Alex, its not green.. what are we going to do! Tell Steph to get you a tan robe.. hehe).


Scott and Rachel got me Call of Duty 3 (xbox360) and a Wireless Control for the 360.

CoD3 is a very fun, very realistic World War II game. I guess I'm not the one to be talking about how "real" it is, but there's a ton of reviews for this game (and some post traumatic stress warnings) - Below is some of the gameplay.



My parents got me a really nice weather station for the house. Wind, Rain, temperature. All wireless from the outside transmiter to the station in my kitchen. I don't have any cool pictures for it though. Sorry Mom & Dad.

My Grandpa and Joan managed to get one hell of a deal off Buy.com and bought me 7 books (Freakanomics, a 3 box set of the Sword of Truth (books 4-6), Books 9, 10 and 11 of the Wheel of time). And still had $14.66 for coffee!. (Okay, so they sent me $50, but that's what I used it on).

Nicole's parents got me some flashlights, a tiny socketed screwdriver and some neat coffee/liqueur glasses.

Alex was kind enough to drop off some Gray Goose and a very nice martini glass. That will go to good use. =)

In the "Merry Christmas to Me" category is:

The HD-DVD player for my xbox 360


Lego Star Wars 2 for my Xbox 360. I mean, its Legos... and its Star Wars. How could you go wrong? I'll give a full review of this sometime soon. I have high hopes. =)


Gardens of the Moon - A very highly recommend fantasy series.

600 TC Duvet Set


A Towel Set for my guest bathroom (mmm, holiday money spent on house linens. My dream has come true...)


And a 330 TC Medium Fill Goose Down Comforter; that is now $30 cheaper and on sale...

Lastly - 95% sure I'm going to be getting this once the dust settles from Christmas Shopping:


A 50" 1080p Samsung DLP TV. Mmmm.. Merry Christmas indeed.

I rock at buying myself gifts.

and thank you everyone for some great gifts this year too.


***
Sorry for the minimal picture Mondays and Link Fridays. I've been trying to switch over to my new computer at work (Windows Vista) which has made both grabbing the pictures off the memory card, and getting my links for the blog not as easy. Also, I managed to lose my memory card for the better part of the holidays; so I didn't get nearly as many pictures as I would have hopped for.
***

Here's to a good New Year!

16 Stitches

So, I picked a fight with some packaging and scissors; which I was ever gracefully lost and picked up 16 stitches.

I'll have some pictures (hehe, gross I know), and some other stuff shortly.

I'm also in the process of moving between my old work computer (Windows XP) and my new work computer (Windows Vista). So link Friday and Picture Monday have been hindered a bit by that as well.

Guess its just time to call this "Christmas blogging break".

Sorry guys...

Been a bit long this time around, I know. This is one of those rare occations that I actually feel like I am more than earning my keep at work. We have a very large project that was moved up to this weekend. Due to lack of .. uhm .. effort from some key employees, I am now project manager, for the simple fact that I dont want to be working late Sunday.

>.<

I will update as soon as possible.

Picture ... who knows..

Pictures Monday, changed to Wednesday, posted on Thursday

.. and ta-boot, there's only 4 pictures. I took a bunch more - just nothing worthy of posting up.


So,here's the 4 pictures. hehe

..are you serious?

Swapping picture Monday and Update Wednesday, simply because I wanted to share my ineptitude.

For a short part of this weekend I had planned to change the oil in my STi. Shockingly, 36,000 miles into my car's life, this is the first time I've had a good spot and a desire to change its oils (She's happily running on Mobile 1 Synthetic since 30,000 serivce @ smartservice).

Of course this means a couple purchases for my very empty garage. A jack and jack stand (sorry Mom, I know these would have made great Christmas gifts) were first on the list. Nothing too exciting.

So I slide under my car to take a peak. Oil plug is very accessible - but the oil filter is up underneath a protective barrier. Its like my car was designed after a rally car or something. Okay, no big deal. 5 bolts; and a broken clip (grrr), I have enough accessibility to my filter. With the oil fully drained I reach for my self adjusting oil filter wrench....

and the filter is smaller than the wrench will adjust to. Wonderful. I grab the new filter I bought, and the wrench fits it. Very weird. Back under the car (mind you the protective barrier is limiting my reach to my filter), yet I still can't get it to fit. Some people call these things warning signs.

Next step - Brute Force? (two workout sessions should be enough.. no?). No. (on a side note: this is how you hurt yourself - trust me).

Athletic Tape, foreign objects, bits of blood. I tried it all. No go. So off to Shucks.

First to triple check the filter I bought (@ walmart, using a torn up old book). PH3835, just like all my Imprezas. This Shucks at least had the updated electronic one that of course told me I should get... PH9715. Qua? Well, I grab that one, and what do you know - its a bunch smaller than the PH3835. Great - I figured out that walmart induced mystery, which was a very nice scapegoat if I may say-so myself. I go over to the oil wrenches and get a nice fitted one I can really put some power down on.

I get home, slide under the car with the new oil wrench.. but you guessed it. Too small. Not the filter this time, but the wrench. Are you kidding me?

Back to Shucks. Time for some official help. I have no qualms about admitting my mechanical ineptitude; though usually oil changing is within my limits. The guy at Shucks was a bit frazzled at my story as well (I say frazzled, but probably mean skeptical). We both decide (after checking the filter I bought for the 4th time), that the next step up fitted wrench is the best bet.

So, back at home, slide under the car and yep, its too small. Not the wrench this time, but back to being the filter's fault. Sooooo.. back to shucks.

At this point, 3 hours into changing my oil, I was pretty certain I had become the personal entertainment for the guys at shucks. So, I return the last wrench (I needed the 1st one I bought to fit the filter that is GOING to go on my car) and decided just to buy some huge oil filter pliers. Guarrented to fit. Great, I love guarrenties.

So, back at home, slide under my car, and yep, it fits. Now to get the filter off.

...

...

well, by the time it came off (yes, it finally did), I had to twist so hard to hold onto it the filter had nearly collapsed onto its self. I lay there on my new garage floor, literally soaked in oil (from the filter, I'm sure more of it ended up on me than in the catch can).

Luckily for me (and my car) everything else went smoothly. New filter with the new wrench went on nicely. Nothing shocking with the oil plug (like forgetting it or something - which after 4 hours, could you really blame me?).

Sunday, which was supposed to be a slue of home projects, turned into an oil change, and then me blowing things up on my Xbox360 to forget said oil change.


And to cap it all off - that evening I couldn't open a freak'n jar of spaghetti sauce. Lucky for me that guarantee to fit any oil filter pliers also fits spaghetti jars. I have to admit, there was a bit of glee in my as I showed that jar who was boss.

Mondo Post!

Okay, so we're going to do all the posts in one this week I guess. Either someone was slacking (no) .. (seriously) ... (I tell you I wasn't!), or I was actually busy (nahh, wasn't that either; I was just slacking).

Okay, so to start things off. Photo Monday! Whoo Hoo.

Click me to head to the Photos. Please come back, there's so much more to see!

As you can tell by the pictures it was a very eventful Thanksgiving. Double the meals, but double the snow driving (as I'm sure you either experienced or heard about in our area). Well, not a single issue or scary moment in the Subaru (Nicole might argue with me on that one - but really, is the passenger ever right?).

So, I guess this should go right into update Wednesday. Kind of ironic that the reason I started the blogs in the beginning was 1) to give out information about my house and 2) to keep myself honest about working out and keeping in shape. Well, I've managed to give only bits and pieces about my house, and I definitely haven't been going to the gym.

Until last week. Counting today Jeremiah and I have two whole straight weeks of going to the gym (once a week). (why are you laughing?). Anyways. I'm old. How do I know that? Its been a week and a half between workouts and I think I was still sore from the first. This whole "recovery time" is crap. My arms are going numb right now, and I'm not sure if its because I'm a bit cold, I maybe threw out my back doing whatever the hell that machine was trying to make me do, or they are legitimately just tired. I'll let you know next week.


Onto the fun stuff. LINK FRIDAY!

Okay, most people don't know about this, but its one of the best services google offers in my opinion. Google Answers. You can post up a quest, with a dollar amount, and a trained research professional at google will respond. The best part is, the answer is available to everyone. So, if you're bored, you can search through google answer to find some really fun stuff.

Here's just one example of the answer to the question; "How many T-Rexes would it take to make a gallon of gas (or conversely, how many gallons of gas in a T-rex)

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=6021


This one is from good 'ol Hardball. Just a quick clip but a Republican totally dismissing Barak Obama. But not just dismissing him. Yes, Baraks middle name is Hussian; but listen to how he says it. Like since his middle name is Hussian its a huge reason we shouldn't elect him



Now one from the Brits! Dope and Driving! Not a simulation either. They got a willing participant to drive a course, both normal and dopped up. Whats the results? Just watch:

This one is SUPER neat. Takes strobbing LED lights, that are synconized with a dripping faucet to "bend time". Seriously, VERY neat. ***DAD*** make me one for Christmas? =))



Okay, nerd trip on this one. Chess is boring. Yes we know that. I love it, but I'll admit, on most people I open up with the same type of moves. So, I found it a bit shocking when I stumbled across Bobby Fischer's version of chess called Chess 960. You use a computer to randomize the back row; so basically there's no possible way to memorize all the opening moves. Want to try it? Just go to the website below, make that the backrow of both sides (black mirrors white, do not setup black as it shows).

Chess 960 Setup

Lastly. Came across this during the week. 10 Commandments for playing Super Tecmo Bowl. Yes, the nintendo game. Funny how that game still holds a spot in so many gamers hearts:

1. I am the Lord Tecmo Bowl thy God; thou shalt play no other Games after the 1993 SNES version of Tecmo Super Bowl.

2. Thou shalt not lurch.

3. Thou shalt not throw thy controller in vain.

4. Thou shalt not skip the coin flip after losing.

5. Thou shalt not steal thy opponents plays (by peaking).

6. Blessed is he who punts, for he will inherit the Earth.

7. Live by the tap, die by the tap.

8. I say unto thee, it is easier to place a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to complete a flea flicker pass.

9. Thou shalt not covet they neighbor's running back.

10. For I so loved the world, that I sent my only son, Bo Jackson, to dominate the game so that thy lack of skills may be forgiven.

Go Bo Jackson.