New Years Eve Day

Yesterday started out fantastic as we made our weekly trip to Best Buy where they had a selection of TV on DVD boxed sets on sale. I picked up the complete series (3 seasons) of Chris Carter's Millennium, starring Lance Henrickson. I also bought the first season of Bones and the second season of Dead Like Me. Each of the sets cost a mere $19.99; a great price and one I couldn't pass up. However, I did see they were selling every season of the X-Files for $19.99 each, which to someone who paid more than twice and in some cases four times that price, made me a little sick.

Once we arrived back home from our shopping excursion, we had a little time to waste before going to my grandparent's house for a New Years Eve celebration. Mom made some French Toast from the bread I made, and we sat and watched Big Day, a show ABC seems to racing to end. From there, we went our separate ways and did our own thing.

Two o'clock came and we made our way to my grandparent's house. We talked about the trouble my Grandfather was having with this contraption they bought at Linen's and Things that allows you to burn you audio tapes and vinyl to CD. When we first heard about it on the day after Thanksgiving, we thought it would be an awesome way to preserve old media. As it turns out, after a solid week of decent results, the whole thing crapped out on them. Now there is some debate on whether they should just return it, or exchange it for another one.

Once we exhausted the subject of the L-n-T contraption, the subject changed to Pokémon and other games my Grandfather was playing. I then showed him the game I was currently playing, Elite Beat Agents. He thought it was a cool concept, and after showing him a quick demo of it, my Aunt and Samantha arrived. Almost immediately, the group divided and my Grandfather, Samantha and I went into another room to play video games, as the ladies sat at the table and did their thing.

We all congregated back to the dining room for food and conversation, then played Disney Trivial Pursuit. My mom and I are huge Disney fans and we know a lot about the parks, but when it comes to Disney movies, while we enjoy watching them, we aren't experts so playing these games is always difficult for us. Personally, I will watch a movie a dozen or so times and still not remember all the details that are required to play such a game. However, once I'm reminded, I can recall the section of the movie with immense clarity. This ability I have is useless in a game that requires you to know the movie to begin with.

After my Aunt, Grandmother and I wiped the floor with our opponents in a very close game, we moved on to a game I generally despise, Outburst! I am a highly competitive person and I hate the way I feel when I compete, so I make every effort to not compete in anything. Outburst! is one of those games that can split families apart, except this time it was better because I had already won in DTP so the feeling of competition subsided.

Once we finished the games and dessert, we all left and headed home. When Mom and I arrived home, we picked out Thank You for Smoking to watch. It is a hilarious movie about a spin-doctor for big tobacco. It's one of those movies, no matter how you feel about the subject of big tobacco, you find yourself rooting for the "bad guy". I highly recommend you see it if you have the chance.

The rest of my evening had me working on the blog for A God in Training and then I felt too sick from exhaustion and the massive amount of food I consumed to continue. So, I lied in bed and watched a little TV until I fell asleep.

Winter Wonderland

Every winter my mom and I, as well as my Aunt Sandy and a random selection of her children go to Portland International Raceway to view Winter Wonderland, a holiday lights spectacular. This year we were surprised to see my cousin Matthew, who moved out of state last year, come and join us. They all arrive at our house and we hang out for a second while we hear a recounting of Matthew and Daniels arrival in Oregon and the subsequent drama that ensued.

After a few minutes Charlie leaves to go bowling while the rest of us present, Mom, Aunt Sandy, Samantha, Matthew and I get into Aunt Sandy's car and begin our journey . . . except we have to go back and get a gas receipt in order to use a coupon my Mom acquired. Alright, now we are on our way. The drive goes quickly as Matthew and I discuss everything from HDTV's, digital camcorders and movies. Apparently, Casino Royale is an excellent film.

We travel the estimated 15.4 miles to PIR and get into the line of cars waiting to enjoy the majestic beauty that is Winter Wonderland. We get to the front of the line and begin our journey through arches, the twelve days of Christmas and various other holiday and non-holiday related light displays. All the while, we were stuck behind a terribly slow SUV who is practically moving backwards. It isn't a problem though, you have to go slow and save for a tense moment in which my Aunt nearly took down an entire display of lights with her car, it was pleasant.

Afterwards we headed to Arby's for dinner where we ate, drank and talked about . . . well, I can't say exactly what we talked about. I do remember a conversation in which my Aunt said that she can make her wood stove sound like Chewbacca, an event I'm looking forward to experiencing first hand. I also recall a discussion about what Die Fledermause, a German operetta by Johan Strauss II, meant translated into English. We later learned it means The Flying-mouse.

Once we finished dinner, we started back to our house. Here, Samantha and I worked on her iPod, getting music ripped, encoded and transferred while the rest of the group talked out in the living room. Some time passed and then it became a quest to remember the name of a cousin's other son. We headed to the Internet and wasn't able to remember so we moved on to baby name books my Mom uses for her Sims characters. After some looking around in the books, laughing hysterically at a section on how to make names, my Aunt blurted it out. A sense of relief filled the room and it marked the end of the evening.

Shut Your Pie Hole

Yesterday I went to lunch with my Grandmother while my Grandfather was out with my cousin, Samantha. We went to Newport Bay, a restaurant that specializes in fish dishes but has other things on the menu, thankfully. I got something without fish, a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich and a cup of clam chowder while my Grandmother ordered the fish tacos. While I'm morally against fish tacos, because they go against nature, I allowed her to order them and I even took a bite of one.

We talked about everything except politics, I firmly believe it was a first for her and I really enjoyed our conversation. I wish more of our conversations had nothing to do politics. We finished lunch and she suggested that we get dessert. Sure, I'm up for anything at this point, even though I was feeling a little full from lunch and my meager breakfast a few hours earlier.

I get the waitress to bring us a dessert menu and we each order the Mud pie. I never eat at Newport Bay, in fact this was probably the first time in more than a decade that I even set foot in one, so I didn't know what to expect going in. We order the $4.50 dessert and I fully expect them to bring out this little piece of Mud pie, because history has shown that by paying more for something, you tend to get less than you should. On the flip side, when you pay less for something, you tend to get more than you should. In this instance, the pie was enormous! I got about halfway through it and I couldn't eat any more. I had to sit back and practically loosen my pants.

After a few minutes of talking, I realized I was still shoveling the pie into my mouth. I wasn't even hungry, I was getting sicker with every bite and I could tell my Grandmother was feeling the same way. We both began laughing hysterically over the situation until finally we both put our forks down. I was able to finish mine, but she left a bite or two.

I was sick through dinner where I ate about one and a half pancakes (Mom felt like pancakes). I didn't eat until about 10:30 the next morning when I had a peanut butter sandwich. I skipped lunch and now I am sitting here at 6:30 with nothing but a yesterday's meal and a peanut butter sandwich in me. Needless to say, that was one big lunch.

Power Play

Last night I was sitting at my computer writing yet another thrilling blog post when all of a sudden the house goes dark. We had lost power. We rarely, if ever lose power because we are on the same power line as a shopping center across the highway. I expected the power to come back on within a few minutes, but since this treacherous wind storm knocked out power to tens of thousands of people, my expectations grew grim.

I got up from my computer and opened the linen closet to feel my way to some flash lights and then made my way to the family room where my mom was getting the oil lamp lit. We had just returned home from Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits with dinner for us, my Aunt Sandy and Cousin Charlie who haven't had power since last Thursday. They were looking forward to not having eat by candlelight.

They arrive and we immediately begin ribbing them about bringing their power misfortune to our neighborhood. We all call the power company to report the problem and hope the power comes back on soon. I really wanted it to come on before SNL because Justin Timberlake was hosting and I remember him being very funny on his last appearance.

After dinner my aunt went to pick up my Cousin Samantha from a church party while Charlie, my mom and I talked in the dark. We received some phone calls from my grandparents and I tried calling Cold Stone in hopes of acquiring some dry ice for our fridge and freezer. My Aunt arrived and they immediately packed up and left.

My mom and I sat at the table, candles burning wondering what to do. It was too dark to read, too dark to play a board game, we ended up parting ways and went to bed. I received a couple of calls from Charlie, one telling me they had finally gotten power and another informing me of why we lost power. I played Contact on the DS for a couple of minutes before closing it and going to sleep at around 10:45pm.

Well, to make a long story short; the cause of the power outage was due to a massive explosion at a substation that knocked out power to nearly 50,000 people. I woke up at 2:40am and saw my my alarm clock flashing 3:32. If I had been awake, I would have caught Saturday Night Live. Blast it all!