So long '07

Another year draws itself to a close.

I've got no complaints. 2007 saw us buy our own house. Good friends moved back home. The kids grew, our families survived.

I've got no great expectations or resolutions for 2008, other than to take it as it comes. One day at a time.

Picked up the Land of the Dead game for the XBox. It's tough. I've been getting served by a bunch of zombies. I'll need to dedicate a night or two to some serious game play if I hope to make any progress.

I also got both From Hell and V for Vendetta for Christmas. Read them both already. I've grown to be a huge fan of Alan Moore now. Thinking about doing a V costume for Halloween. The challenge there being doing an authentic comic version versus the film.

Currently, the search is on for an affordable wood burning stove for the office. It remains to be seen if that will come to pass.

Merry Meme

Mycalls posted this, so I'll share the yule cheer.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper for the kids, bags for everyone else.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real tree and wreath this year.

3. When do you put up the tree? The second weekend of December, usually.

4. When do you take the tree down? In the past, when it was good and dead. This year I suspect it'll be sooner.

5. Do you like egg nog? Hood's new gingerbread flavored is really good.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Anything Star Wars, most of which I still have. And the aforementioned Green Machine.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? We have an incomplete one somewhere. I was thinking of filling in the missing players with action figures.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My parents. They really don't need any more shit.

9. Easiest person to buy for? The kids. They're more than willing to express their desires.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail this year. usually I just forget all together.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My grandmother gave me a horrid sweater one year. Damn near scarred me for life.

12. Favorite Christmas movie? It's a toss up between A Christmas Story and It's a Wonderful Life.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? In earnest around mid November.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Indeed.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Italian cookies. Eggnog, pumpkin pie.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? We usually have clear, but the kids voted for colored this year.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Merry Fucking Christmas" from the South Park Mr. Hankey album. "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" still gets me, mostly because it's always relevant.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We do a bit of traveling.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Did I mention I have kids? That'd be a yes.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Last year we had a Darth Vader head. This year, a star.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? People being rude because they are so frazzled... it seems to get worse every year.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I've got a boatload of Star Wars ornaments. Enough said.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Homemade pizza and chocolate soy milk. That'll do just fine.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A wood burning stove would keep me happy

All I want for Christmas Part 2

Is to be small enough to take one of these for a spin again. I had many a great adventure on my Green Machine.

Cloverfield Clip

Always Look On the Bright Side

Sure, it's only the first week of December and we've had a solid week of sub-freezing temps and varying amounts of that silly white stuff kids seem to love. It's been unpleasant and a bit of an adjustment, true. But on the plus side, it's perfect zombie weather. If this was post outbreak, most of the zombies would be frozen now. The ones that were still mobile would be very slow. Sure, it wouldn't be totally safe, but you could move around pretty freely and be able to off a good number of them.

Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

I'll up the positive ante by mentioning I am also the proud owner of a pretty good sledding hill. It's not giant, but a plastic saucer would get you flying pretty good. In addition, there'll be enough snow to create an army or two of three foot snowmen.

Pretty, pretty good.

My Little Girl

Kids are funny.

Last night I stopped by Newbury Comics with Isabel. I had a few presents to pick up for co-workers, and I figured she wouldn't mind tagging along. As we were walking down one of the toy aisles, she spotted a plush doll and demanded to get down so she could see it. She grabbed it off the shelf, clutched it tight and started repeating "Baby doll! baby doll!" I couldn't get her to let go of it. She was in love. With this:


Nicholas, three years older than her, is scared of it. Isabel loves it so much, she slept with it all night, holding it in her arms.

You never can tell.

All I want for Christmas

Is the return of the Sears Wish Book



PS: Plush Pac Man is hungry for you

Stupid Couch

The behemoth has returned. When KG and I had our first apartment together, and she was preggers, we bought this huge as couch from Jordan's. It's big. It's been sitting in my parent's garage for years because we couldn't fit it through the door at our last apartment.

I haven't missed it.

Now, after finally getting our office/rec room in order, the bastard has been returned to me.

I'm not happy, yo.

All wrapped up

KG and I managed to take care of 90% of our Santa shopping in one fell swoop. Hopefully everything is lead free.

Tonight I'm wrapping presents and finally cleaning up all my music files. Stupid iTunes went all shitty on me. The plus side is it finally got me to organize everything and clean up some excess files. A chore I'd been putting off for some time.

I'm tired. Really fucking tired. I should go to bed. But I won't.

Tis the season

I'm not sure what exactly is behind it, but I seem to have a bit of the Christmas spirit this year.

I'm no Grinch to begin with, but it's rare for me to feel festive.

Perhaps it'll pass.

I wish turkey only cost a nickle

Happy turkey day, y'all. Hope everyone has a pleasant holiday.

And remember to thankful, dammit.

Gimme some loving

Is that asking too much? Eh?

48%

Looking for payday loans?

Where my fingernails live

Kids say and do weird things, without a doubt.

TKJr. came walking into the living room after having gone to bed tonight. He wanted me to come in his room so he could show me something. The following conversation occurred:

"What did you want to show me, honey?"
"I want to show you where my fingernails live."
"Umm, OK. Where do they live?"
"You tell me."
"I don't know, I thought you wanted to tell me."
"You tell me."
"On your fingers?"
"No, the ones I peel off."
"I don't know. Where do they live?"
"Under my pillow!"

He then proceeded to show me a little collection of 4 or 5 fingernail ends he had peeled off and stashed under his pillow.

Weird kid.

What is wrong with these kids?

Yesterday I was pulled out of work by a call from TKJr's preschool. Seems he puked, so I had to bring him home.

Of course, once we got home, he was all about playing and not resting.

In the wee hours of this morning, he was coughing in his sleep, and Izzy (in bed with us) woke up shivering, puking and crying. She had a fever of almost 103. So, both KG and I stayed home so we could take these two to the doctor.

Junior gets diagnosed with a sinus infection, Izzy probably the same thing. We get them home, and after a mini nap, they spend the rest of the night running around, being general pains in the ass.

I'm exhausted, stressed, my back is killing me, and I doubt I'll get a good night's sleep. Little girl is already in bed with KG while I sit down here tugging on a beer. To boot, my nose is starting to drip.

I actually would have preferred to be at work today.

You got my vote, brother

RIP Paul Tibbets

Brigadier General Paul Tibbets (USAF, Ret) died today at the age of 92. Godspeed to you, good sir.

I grew up in the shadow of nuclear annihilation. During the late 70's and through the 80's, the threat of global thermonuclear war seemed very real and very frightening. Being a morbid child by nature, I was slightly obsessed with nuclear war.

Until recently, I was revolted by the fact that America had dropped atomic bombs on the citizens of Japan. The thought that 100,000 people could die in an instant is a horror nearly impossible to comprehend. Innocent civilians, children, vaporized. Hundreds of thousands more suffering and dying for generations after.

Then I learned about the Japanese and their quest to conquer the world. I learned about their mindset, their culture. The lengths they went to in fighting their war. The lengths they were prepared to go to to avoid surrender.

Suddenly the Little Boy and Fat Man made a lot of sense.

All Things Considered did a piece on him this afternoon. When countering the charge that the dropping of the atomic bomb was immoral, Tibbets made a remark that really moved me. He said somrthing to the effect that "first you have to consider that there is no morality in war. War itself is immoral."

That it is.

When all is said in done, no nuclear device has ever been used in conflict since the surrender of Japan. For that, we should all be thankful.

Paul Tibbets lived with the burden of ushering in the nuclear age. He appeared to accept it.

Hurm

Rorschach's Journal October 31, 2007

Woke up early. Arrived at work and prepared for the day's events.
Found myself surrounded by flying monkeys. Hallucination? Must investigate further.

Sexy Mustard

It Approaches

Halloween is almost here. KG and I are still trying to decide who is staying home to pass out candy. If she stays, I'm donning the TK and making the rounds with the kids. If I stay home, it'll probably be the zombie costume and loud spooky music to scare the trick or treaters. Of course, I'm hoping for the latter.

My costume is almost complete. Gave it a test fit, and it looks good. Mask is done. Coat is weathered. Hat and gloves fit. Just need to clean up the pin and apply the blood, and find some pants.

The whole project ended up being more trouble than anticipated, but it looks good. That's all that counts.