Well, here we are in the New Year already, about time for a new blog
entry! Seeing as how this entry will be quite lengthy, I’ve decided to
break it up into multiple sections

Christmas Came Early this Year:

Not wanting to haul all the Christmas presents down with us to open and
bring them back, we decided to open them a couple days early. I was pretty
excited to get a new video card for my computer (with a lifetime
warranty), one of the best mario games ever… Super Mario Galaxy, a new
computer game Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (putting the video card to good
use!), and some racquetball gear. Tonight’s my first match on the new
ladder… and I’ve got a spiffy new dual racquet case, that houses my new
racquet, ball saver (pretty neat thing, creates a vacuum to make the balls
last longer), a new glove I got and my safety glasses. I took the gear for
a test run this past weekend, and am pretty excited for my match tonight!
Susan must have been a good girl again this year (even though she blamed
me for losing her stuff… see below…) She got a couple movies, Superbad
and Ratatouille, the Golden Compass book set, Kite Runner, a LightWedge
(story behind this, see below…), moisturizing socks, a set of
springforms (hopefully I’ll be getting yummy cheesecakes without the
smoke!), two packages of rechargeable batteries, a teddy bear with the
year 2007 on the foot (it’s tradition!), and a competition bocce ball set
(for when the new lawn comes in, and dang those balls are heavy!) from me.
Scout saw this really nice gift basket (well mostly a really nice big
green bow), and gave that to Susan, it had (besides a bow) a 6 pack of
Smirnoff Ice, Hairspray (the movie), and a box of dove chocolates. Scout
must have been a bad kitty, she only got one present, a kitty-training
set… hopefully she’ll be able to learn some new tricks (besides
talking…

The Case of the Missing Items:

Getting ready to head south for the holidays, it took us longer then
expected to pack for the occasion. Doing the compressed work week schedule
we had the Friday before Chirtmas off… giving us plenty of time to pack
and get ready (not quite =P ). We spent the day enjoying our new gifts and
mentally getting ready for the trip. The next day was crunch time, we got
our suitcases ready and the car was being loaded (we even managed to
remember the Christmas presents for everyone!) Just when I thought we were
all set to go, Susan couldn’t find her neck pillow (aka “Horse Collar”) or
sleep mask anywhere. The search began… first in the basement (where I
assume everything is that I can’t find, it’s a mess down there…) Then we
scoured the first floor and guests bedrooms, while Susan insisted she
already checked those places. I started going through the bags in our
closet (again, hearing the “I’ve already checked there!”) Back down to the
basement we went… it still wasn’t there. Finally, tucked away in a
carry-on bag Susan found what we were looking for (thought you checked
there… and I didn’t have anything to do with it being there =P). Our
next item, the sleepmask, it could only have been in a couple different
places (again I was the one to blame for losing it…) We tore all the
sheets off the bed, looked under the bed, looked in the washer, and in the
dryer, until… I found it, hidden away in Scout’s secret area of
treasures (under the rug, by the back door…) The second item I was
accused of losing, turned out not to be my fault once again. There was one
more case where I “lost” something, the rechargeable batteries from
Susan’s camera (thus why she got some for Christmas). Before we moved, I
had used the batteries for a game of Madden on the Wii, being a good
borrower I had put the cameras back (or so I thought…) Days turned to
weeks, turned to months and the batteries were no where to be found (or
were they?) As it turns out, they were in the camera the whole time (where
else would they be?) The case of the missing batteries had been solved

What the Heck is a LightWedge?

That was the response I received from many a-people on my quest to find
Susan her book reading light. Oh, but it’s not just any book eading light,
it’s a Lightwedge… so what does that mean exactly? Well, it’s this
new-fangled contraption that you place on your book and through a piece of
plastic it lights up the whole page (if you get the right size). I started
my search by heading to the Lightwedge homepage. On this site they have a
variety of Lightwedges for sale, coming in different shapes and colors.
They also have this really neat feature that lets you put in a zipcode and
it’ll come back with the three closest stores that carry these nifty
little inventions (so one would think…) I slap in Midland’s zipcode and
voila… three places came back, Target, Barnes & Noble, and OfficeMax…
hmmm… that was easy, a little too easy. During my Christmas shopping I
started off at Target, no luck on the Lightwedge there, okay, lets try
Barnes & Noble… a book store, logic choice, right? Nope, the British
accent guy had no idea what I was talking about. Well, seeing as how
OfficeMax was on the other side of Eastman (a treacherous stretch of road
this time of the year), I decided to hit up Staples (similiar to
OfficeMax)… but that was a no go either. Finishing my shopping at
Meijer’s and Wal-Mart… neither had the Lightwedge, I decided to cross
the road and go into OfficeMax. They didn’t know what I was talking about
either, but the cashier said someone had bought something like that 30
minutes ago… but they didn’t know where to find it or what it was called
(that’s helpful…) So, did Susan get one before we left town, you betcha!
I quickly ordered one online, paid a nice sum of cash for two-day delivery
and it was there in time for me to wrap it up and put it under the tree,
yay! Now she wants a bigger one, even though she said she wanted the
paperback one. -.-

Bransen Missouri, Here we Come!

This year for Christmas we went down to see my folks in Bransen. They
have a timeshare there and invited us down for a real Missouri Christmas.
The trip down was pretty easy going until we were about 30 miles from the
Illinois border. It started to sprinkle and then really started coming
down. We had a late start, but thought we were at a good stopping place…
a Hilton Garden Inn in Effingham (about 4-5 hours away from Bransen). My
mom had hit the same storm during the day and apparently it was a
tremendously dark and large raincloud she drove into. That same storm had
closed I-70 in Kansas where there was an 80 car chain reaction pile up due
to the snow! Not wanting to pay seven bucks for the Hilton breakfast
buffet, we hit up the local McDonald’s and were on our way. Not having
cell phone coverage outside Michigan, we never got the messages from my
mom telling us which room they were in… We got to the front gates, told
the security guy we were there to see the Jeske’s and that I have no idea
the room number… He let us through, and we stopped in at the front desk,
got ahold of my mom and were on our way to the room. Apparently there was
some sort of mix up, as my parents expected to be getting a cabin (but
there were none left)… then there was a problem as my mom only received
a key to half the room (it’s split into two parts, an A and a B). She had
gotten just the B room, which was just that, a room and a bathroom.
Getting everything straightened out, we stayed in a really nice room (the
A part had another room with jacuzzi bathtub, a living room with a
fireplace, a screened deck, a kitchen, and a dining room), not quite a
cabin, be really nice nonetheless

Showcapital, USA:

If you haven’t heard, Bransen is famous for the numerous shows they have
each year. We picked a few that we wanted to see… first on our list was
the Kirby magic show. We tried to get discount tickets, but found out we
had to listen to info from a timeshare to get them. Seeing as how we were
by the theatre, we decided to just suck it up and get the tickets there.
It’s a good thing we got there when we did, as the line was getting to be
quite long after we got our tickets. We managed to get tickets that were
in the center about seven rows back from the stage! The magic show was
really good (better than the one in Mount Pleasant) and that was only half
of it. The second half was a Christmas play that was super funny. The
guest comedian apparently didn’t say any lines from the script, which made
it all the more funny. The ears kept falling off the elves (one was
dripping with sweat), and all around it was a very entertaining show! The
next show we went to see was the Dixie Land Stampede. They had a pre-show
entertainer, and he was one of the best jugglers I’ve ever seen! That
alone was almost worth the price of the tickets, but the stampede was
really awesome. They seat you around this huge arena filled with dirt. In
front of you is a couple of cups a plate and a bowl (but no silverware.)
During the show, you’re eating a full course meal with just your hands, so
to clap, they had these boards set up in front of your feet you got to
kick (otherwise known as a Dixieland Stampeded)… The food was good,
albeit a little much… soup, rotissarre chicken (a full bird, small, but
still all the parts), pork, corn on the cob, baked potato, and an apple
dessert (again… no silverware, it was messy and fun!) and the show was
pretty sweet too! Next up we went to see 50’s at the Hop. This had a
handful of male and female vocalists singing the popular songs of the
fifties and dancing (for almost two full hours!) The show was
entertaining, but they could have used an upgrade to their soundsystem
(still it was really impressive!) We also paid a visit to the Butterfly
house, where we got to see a 3D movie about butterfiles, go through a
mirror maze, and of course we saw butterfiles (and turtles that look like
rocks!) It was neat to see all the butterfiles, and the mirror maze was a
lot of fun (unless you ran into the mirrors 😉 ). We also spent a whole
day at Silver Dollar City, where we saw A Christmas Carol, glass being
blow, a saloon Christmas show, got to ride a roller coaster (frontwards
and backwards… yes it was cold, but at least it wasn’t raining!), and
had a fun (cold) filled day

The Day Before Christmas Day:

The day before Chirstmas, Wal-Mart was open, but didn’t have a lot in
the grocery department (Jubilee was already closed when we got there…)
It was a mad scramble to get everything we needed for Christmas dinner,
there were tons of people there and the store was closing soon! We managed
to get everything we needed, and the dinner was really good. We also got
to watch A Christmas Story a few times (my dad still didn’t get to see the
ending, heh!) My parents seemed to enjoy the gifts we got them, Este
Lauder for my mom, and a bucket of beer for my dad (with a movie and a
fancy bottle opener!

The New Year:

There are quite a few colorful pictures of me getting our Caribbean style
drinks going in the picture section (recipes are in the archive section =P
). Just as I was pouring the first glass, we realized it was almost the
New Year… we had forty seconds to spare (whew… we didn’t miss it!) We
watched the ball drop on TV, then flipped through the channels and found
something more interesting to watch… (sadly we didn’t get to see any Law
& Order marathons…) and off to bed it was (yup… not very exciting…

Work and Other Such Non-sense:

Coming off a two week break and going back to work isn’t my idea of fun.
Someone forgot to pack a lunch yesterday and almost forgot again today! 😉
Luckily with this compressed work week schedule we only had to work
yesterday and today, and tomorrow we have off… if only we could work two
days every week… and still get paid! I did manage to get a phone
interview with Chater Communications (shush all you anti-Charter folks =P
). I wasn’t exactly what they were ooking for in the position I applied
for, but they have an upcoming opening they’ll be contacting me (hopefully
shortly) that I’m an exact match for… keep your fingers crossed

Day Two:

This entry has been so long, it took me two days to write it! I ended up
playing my match last night and man it was a lot of fun. The first game I
lost by six points, but the second game was defintely more exciting (no…
I didn’t win 🙁 ). We were stuck 12-7 (me being the seven), for quite some
time… until finally I scored a point and then he scored one. We switched
serves a few more times and he got another point, 14-8, I managed to hold
him off and was up to 13, until he got the game winning point. It was a
tough match and he challenged me to a third… I whooped him 15-2, if only
I had a couple more points in the second game, I would have won the match!
Well, that’s about all I can think about that happened over the past
couple weeks, stay tuned for more… and Happy New Year