We made it!

With little time to spare, we actually made it in time for the party. I got a shower and took the trash off, then went and picked up a sandwich tray. Ran by a drug store to pick up some OTC allergy medicine for the boy to help with his allergies and coughing. I went to the place i had ordered the wings from, and when I got there they discovered that the girl had put us down for the 24th instead of today. Luckily, it didn't take them long to make them for us. However, several folks showed up a little early, and I still had to get home, get this stuff in and get dressed.

We had a great spread. The sandwiches, wings, veggie tray and dip, pasta salad, cheese dip, chicken nuggets, shrimp and lots of sweets. Everyone seemed to have plenty to eat and enjoyed it. We had a couple of fun games that my mom brought that had prizes. I was playing with the new camera my sister got for Christmas. It's a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi and the thing is phenomenal! Anyway, the kids opened up their gifts. The boy got a karaoke machine, a keyboard, a globe and a whole mess of little things.

We drew numbers to do the white elephant gifts. There was only one steal in the whole game. I wound up with a little electronic Christmas tree with moneys that ring bells that plays 3 traditional songs. Holly got a really nice goody basket with all kinds of movie treats. The wife played some Christmas songs for the kids. The boy was in a mood all night and cried for most of it. Of course he perked up after everyone left. Don't know what's going on with him, but I hope this is a phase and he'll come out of it. Especially with a new baby on the way.

Tomorrow is the trip to the in-laws. Actually, I think this is the first year since the wife and I have been together that we've not spent the night Christmas Eve Eve...

Busted Belt

Last night I was working on what we call the music room which is actually our old living room. Since we enclosed the garage, it should really be called a den, but since we practically "live" in this room, I call it our living room. With that said, I was vacuuming using the extension wand and the small attachment to get in the crevasses. For some crazy reason, the brush on the main unit still spins when you're doing this which makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyway, I thought we had everything up in there, but there was a black sock that must have gotten dropped that blended in with the rug. So I hear a funny noise and smell something burning, and there is the sock stuck on one side just melting away. To make a long story longer, the belt actually broke and when I needed to vacuum the regular way, the brushes didn't work. This means that after my haircut this morning I have the pleasure of dealing with the crowds at Wal-Mart to go find a belt. I'm just praying that they have one because, if they don't, I will be purchasing a new vacuum cleaner. We've still got a lot to do today although I feel pretty good about what we've done so far. No matter what, I absolutely have to be done with everything I have to by 3:30 PM today so that I can go get all of our food stuff!

OObi is back...

We had a free 6 months of HBO along with a discounted enhanced cable through our cable provider that ended this month. So, as a present to the wife and boy, I went ahead and bumped us up to the next level since it was only a few dollars more a month. The nice thing is that it included about 6 or 7 more children's channels giving us a few more options for the boy. That is definitely worth it.

The best inclusion was the Noggin channel which we used to have when we were on satellite. Of course that was back when the boy was a few months old. Since the provider offers an on demand option, all of those channels and shows are available to us now whenever we want. And since the boy doesn't mind watching the exact same show 18 million times, it's a perfect solution when he needs a distraction for a while.

The only thing I don't like about the service is that recording to DVD or VHS is blocked somehow. I'd love to be able to record these shows to make them available in his room or when we travel. I really feel like we ought to have the right to do that since we pay for the service. But others would most likely abuse it. Anyway, been fairly pleased with our service and glad to have better options!

Last Day Of Work!

Today is my last day of work until the new year. We get almost 2 weeks off. The boy's daycare is still open tomorrow. His mother has an appointment in the morning, and then she is going to go to his school party. I know she is extremely excited because she doesn't get to be the classroom mom she would hope to be since we work an hour's drive away. So this will be a nice opportunity for her to participate.

Have a busy few days ahead. Lots of cleaning to do for the party on Saturday evening. Have to go rent a carpet cleaner in the morning and get that done. Sunday is church, then off to the in-laws for Christmas Eve. We drive home that night and get in the bed before Santa stops by. I'm sure we'll be up bright and early Christmas morning to see what he brought! Finally off to my parent's house to complete the day with a meal and presents.

Let's just say that Christmas night into the 26th will be filled with sawing logs and visions of sugar plums dancing in my head for SEVERAL hours!

Standing in line at the

Standing in line at the post office is not much fun. Especially since my music can not be played over bluetooth. However, this mobile blog helps!

O Christmas Tree

The tree is UP!!! It takes way too long to put one of these things up. And I left off the 2 bottom most sets of branches so that we could put the tree closer to the wall. I hate staying up late like this because I get wired and then can't get to sleep. When I finally do get to sleep, the alarm clock goes off and wakes me up...

OK, a repeat of SNL is on E! right now. Neil Young is the musical guest. First of all, who ever told this moron that he could sing? Second, how stupid would you have to be to purchase a recording by this fool. Not only can he not sing, but to watch him try and sing is like watching an animal die in pain.

One funny thing about this particular episode is the spelling bee. He's asked to spell business and he uses like all the wrong letters and about 300 of them, then he says letter "q" about 30 times in a row. Jack Black was the host, and he is absolutely hilarious. I had set a reminder to record Michael Sweet Christmas, and it was the Crabb Family. Oh well... I can't keep my eyes open now....

Mirror, Mirror off the truck....

One of my co-workers came to me earlier and asked if I could help her this afternoon. I thought she was talking about something with the computer or with SQL. Come to find out, she went through the gate here at work and didn't let it get open all the way. She completely knocked off her driver side mirror. Luckily it is an electonic mirror, so it was hanging down the side of the truck. So, not many minutes ago, we set out with a pair of scissors and a roll of duct tape to repair the mirror. I wrapped that thing about 30 times - you never know how something like that will hold in 65MPH traffic! She said that she and another co-worker were just belly-laughing about it when they got in. We all do crazy stuff up here, and I think we get a kick out of hearing about each other's follies!

Just 2 more days now and we'll be off for 2 WHOLE WEEKS! I am ready. I am scheduled to take the 70-431 test in Sandy Springs on the 30th a little after 1:00 PM. I have a LOT of studying to do to prepare for this test. It will be really cool to have one of the new Microsoft Certs!

Yellow means Stop?

OK - maybe I just have a bad memory, but didn't we learn that Yellow means slow down and Red means stop when referring to traffic lights? We have the worst problem on the street that I work on with lights being down. The side with the major traffic has blinking yellow and the other blinking red. Yet, the lovely people that drive around here must not have studied from the same book I did because they act like it is a four way stop. In actuality, you're only supposed to treat a traffic light as a four way stop if the light is COMPLETELY out. This is directly from the Department of Education's Website:

A flashing circular red signal means stop and remain stopped until it is safe to proceed. Flashing red signals are used at particularly dangerous locations.
A flashing circular yellow signal is a warning of a particular hazardous location. Drivers may proceed through, but should use extreme caution.

Hello - how hard is that to remember...

The boy is too funny

Ben was in Children's Church this Sunday. After Holly finished playing in the Sanctuary, she went to Children's Church to sing some Christmas Tunes with the kids. She stayed back there for a little while to listen to the lesson. When the teacher asked "Where does Jesus live?" Benjamin promptly and proudly blurted out "The North Pole!"

Sunday afternoon I was in my office working on a computer that a fellow church member brought to me to fix. Ben came in with an old Insurance Card we'd given him to play with. He stated that he had just received the card in the mail, more like a greeting card. He said it was from his Me Me. I asked him what the card said... "I want my card back."

That little joker keeps me in stiches all the time!!

Ben is the STAR

It was so neat last night to go to Ben's program and see how truly talented and intelligent he is. Other kids his age as well as older ones were so easily distracted and some didn't even sing. Ben was right there doing the motions and sang everything correctly.

When people see him in public or we take him to see the Doctor, they always say how advanced his language skills seem to be for his age. I don't know if it is because he is naturally aware of everything or if it is because we take the time to talk to him and not treat him like a little baby.

I can't wait to see how he is with Whit. I'm certain that he will be extremely loving. Last night, as he was leaving, he was giving all of his classmates hugs and kisses. He loves his teacher, Mrs. Carol, and all the kids at the school seem to know him pretty well. It will be interesting to see how he does next year in a public school setting. I am still worried about his issues with talking back and being aggressive. Perhaps when the baby gets here it will help with that. Knowing my luck, it will probably make it worse...