Shovel, Shovel, Toil and Trouble
I'm not sure if you noticed this or not, but it snowed this weekend! Really! Shoveling my house out wasn't too bad - the kids got cold after about half an hour of flopping around, thus turning me loose - but the yard was the expected headache. After the fire we built a temporary (note: now 6 years old) dismantling area in the ruins with an ingenious tent designed by my father. We intended to rebuild but the town gave us a such a hard time - we wanted a smaller building, but they INSISTED we build the original footprint with was a weird shape and not something we could get in a prefab, so we basically told them to screw off and kept the tent. This kind of snow - lots of it that got really heavy in today's sun - is the most dangerous sort, and so I spent an hour or so clambering around in thigh deep snow finding footholds and shoving snow off the tarps with a broom. Good times, good times.
When I was mailing out Xmas cards (note - you probably aren't getting one. We basically forgot about them and the only ones I sent out were last-second responses to ones we'd gotten - sorry!) I had my address book out and happened to see my old college roommate's address. Paul and I were roommates for all 4 years and we stayed good friends after that, until The Practice Wife called his wife during our split and told her I was a member of a cult and had a harem of women and no doubt other lies as well. She freaked, and Paul pretty much bailed on me. It sucked, but that was a long time ago and, on a chance, I sent him a card and told him to get back in touch with me if he wanted to. We had a lot of good times together, and those who know me now can thank him for breaking me of my borderline Guido ways - yes, I owned Capezios and skinny leather ties. I was not anywhere near as bad as the Jersey Shore fellows, though. There's a great picture of me at the Shore when I'm like 18 and wearing a shirt The Situation would be proud of, I'll have to see if I can find it and scan it in.
I have won my fantasy football league, unless my tight end fumbles 14 times tomorrow night. This means I have a windfall of around $1200 or so coming in at some point, and while my natural instinct is to use it to refill drained coffers a part of me wants to spend it on Laura in some way. Considering the knuckleheads I do this league with, I'm not deciding on anything until I have money in hand.
So we finally got to see Pixar's Up this weekend. I thought it was pretty good, with the movie being stolen by the Kevin-Bird. Seriously, that thing came on-screen and in 30 seconds had a full-fleshed out personality. Good stuff. Impossible not to like Dug as well. Pixar is still not perfect when it comes to their human characters, though. Always seem to be the weakest link. I'm not sure where I'd rate this one in their pantheon - probably up near the top with WALL-E (which gets better every time I see it, despite the silly ending) and The Incredibles. I know that Finding Nemo is probably their highest rated flick, but I don't really like it - I hate the message it sends - 'hey kids, don't listen to your parents, because they'll almost get themselves killed numerous times rescuing you anyway.' And Dora - overrated. As a former line cook I could never warm to Ratatouille because, well, rats in a kitchen. Ewww. I don't really remember Toy Story but Becky absolutely loves it. All my shopping is done and the kids' presents are wrapped. Still have to wrap family presents in additions to Laura's, but I'm in good shape. She goes away on a business trip for three days next week - boo. Then again, it'll give me some time to prep my Inspectres game for Not-A-Con in January and do some long overdue writing. Oh, and to freeze my ass off at work. Can't forget that.
When I was mailing out Xmas cards (note - you probably aren't getting one. We basically forgot about them and the only ones I sent out were last-second responses to ones we'd gotten - sorry!) I had my address book out and happened to see my old college roommate's address. Paul and I were roommates for all 4 years and we stayed good friends after that, until The Practice Wife called his wife during our split and told her I was a member of a cult and had a harem of women and no doubt other lies as well. She freaked, and Paul pretty much bailed on me. It sucked, but that was a long time ago and, on a chance, I sent him a card and told him to get back in touch with me if he wanted to. We had a lot of good times together, and those who know me now can thank him for breaking me of my borderline Guido ways - yes, I owned Capezios and skinny leather ties. I was not anywhere near as bad as the Jersey Shore fellows, though. There's a great picture of me at the Shore when I'm like 18 and wearing a shirt The Situation would be proud of, I'll have to see if I can find it and scan it in.
I have won my fantasy football league, unless my tight end fumbles 14 times tomorrow night. This means I have a windfall of around $1200 or so coming in at some point, and while my natural instinct is to use it to refill drained coffers a part of me wants to spend it on Laura in some way. Considering the knuckleheads I do this league with, I'm not deciding on anything until I have money in hand.
So we finally got to see Pixar's Up this weekend. I thought it was pretty good, with the movie being stolen by the Kevin-Bird. Seriously, that thing came on-screen and in 30 seconds had a full-fleshed out personality. Good stuff. Impossible not to like Dug as well. Pixar is still not perfect when it comes to their human characters, though. Always seem to be the weakest link. I'm not sure where I'd rate this one in their pantheon - probably up near the top with WALL-E (which gets better every time I see it, despite the silly ending) and The Incredibles. I know that Finding Nemo is probably their highest rated flick, but I don't really like it - I hate the message it sends - 'hey kids, don't listen to your parents, because they'll almost get themselves killed numerous times rescuing you anyway.' And Dora - overrated. As a former line cook I could never warm to Ratatouille because, well, rats in a kitchen. Ewww. I don't really remember Toy Story but Becky absolutely loves it. All my shopping is done and the kids' presents are wrapped. Still have to wrap family presents in additions to Laura's, but I'm in good shape. She goes away on a business trip for three days next week - boo. Then again, it'll give me some time to prep my Inspectres game for Not-A-Con in January and do some long overdue writing. Oh, and to freeze my ass off at work. Can't forget that.