In case you were wondering.

Yes, it is true! Snow...

PLUS (+) wind...

EQUALS (=)

Friggin' Freezin'! There's something wrong with the high being in the neighborhood of 18 F. Icy pretty much nails it.

By the way, huge thanks go out to Mom and Doris for the spanking awesome Christmas present of a brand new digital camera. No more phone photos for me. Unless, of course, I forget my camera, but I'll be doing my best not to do that.

On that note, here is one of the coolest Christmas Trees I've ever seen. I have to give my dad lots of credit, he has an imagination after all!

So modern. It almost takes my breath away.

Last night was Seth's birthday. Isn't he just so adorable?

Of course, any time there's fun to be had, you can find JD around as well. Nice pose fellas.

And no birthday is truly complete with out a little cake and (the) champagne (of beers).

Go ahead, count those candles. Good times were had by all. Hopefully we'll get a bit more blackmail at the coming New Year's Eve gala. If we can get Dick Clark to swing by we'll have a Rockin' Good Time.

You're a little absent minded spirit.

No! I'm a large absent minded spirit.

Sorry I haven't been on much recently, but here's a little Christmas spirit for everyone else out there. My wish for the entire Netahrweb is joy, happiness and love in this time of giving.

Enjoy.

Boo!

I don't know if I can fully describe just how much disdain in have for the fluffy white stuff. Today may have been one of the most unproductive days I've had in years. I did get out eventually to try and do some Christmas shopping, but I wasn't able to find anything I really thought would work. One thing I did get were ideas for what to get the important people in my life.

Question: Why is it that during this season of caring and giving, people in general are more grumpy, sour, mean, and just plain rude than any other time of the year? I've never really understood that side of the Christmas Spirit.

For now, check out this little tidbit I found on the Netahrweb. I'm Super, thanks for asking!

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 80% Spider-Man 80% The Flash 75% Superman 65% Robin 58% Supergirl 56% Wonder Woman 51% Iron Man 50% Hulk 45% Catwoman 30% Batman 30%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero am I?" quiz...


Stay tuned tomorrow. I'm working on a few more Items of Note. We'll see what goodies I come up with this time.

You Need A

Montage!

Beth and Sparky have recently added Rocky Montages (that just sounds weird, plural of a montage), so I figured I'll show the Netahrweb what a real montage looks like. Unfortunately I could not find a good version without the subtitles. We'll pretend that I did that on purpose for all of my ESL friends out there.

Take it away!



Thanks to Trey Parker and Matt Stone for this little gem. Bonus for anyone who knows where else this song was used.

Rain, Rain Go Away

No, wait, come back! It's better than SNOW!

Here it is, finally! My update on the trip to the great Northwest.

Yes, as I said before, it snowed in Seattle! Lewis Black might be on to something, because "that's not right!"

On to the rest of the trip.

Actually, I take that back. First, a little back story. A couple of weeks ago I received an email from The Past. A little more than a week after that a few hours were spent with The Past during an extended layover. What came of this you ask? An invitation to Seattle the following weekend.

Now that the back story is over, let us begin.

So, after much deliberation and some wise words from many of those close to me, I was packed on my way.

Observation: DIA is a very spacious airport. This is not conducive to making it from parking out in BFE to your gate in under 20 minutes.

Luckily, I made it to my gate just as they called boarding for all rows, all passengers. Perfect timing, seeing as how I had the world's greatest seat, 1C. One uneventful flight later I was on the ground in a strange new place. Seattle, WA.

Observation: SEA-TAC is a very compact airport. This is not conducive to delaying due to extreme nervousness.

Of course, She was there waiting for me in the terminal, as beautiful as always (proof to come). We got in the car and took a short, wet ride back to the apartment where I was greeted by a very young and sometimes rambunctious fur-ball. Now the rest of you can meet Izzy.
Oh, she may look sweet here, but she's got big, sharp, pointy fangs!

Look at the bones! (Apologies to all of you who don't get that reference, but I think its pretty funny.)

I spent the next few days learning the city, drinking plenty of coffee, tea and some really good wines. I ate waaaaaay too much food, and all in all just had a great time with a pretty okay person. Ladies and gentleman, a few photos, and that proof that I was right about the beautiful thing.

Saturday night at Brooklyn's (per Mr. Brewer's suggestion). Mmm, fatty likes food!
Everything comes highly recommended! I loved the mussels, or as Ann would say, moules.

Sunday night was spent at Purple.
If you look closely, you can see my uber-red right eye from the lessons learned and shared yesterday. Anywho, about the night. Awesome pastas! Oh, and Sunday nights, this is the place to be. If you spend $25 or more on food, every bottle of wine under $50 is half off. Beware, you can do some serious damage at this place. Oh, and the atmosphere is pretty cool too.

Monday morning, at a gawd awful hour, I was off to the airport for the flight home. Armed with an equally great seat for the return home (1D) and fantastic memories I was (not) ready to come home. It's always hard to leave when you've had such a good time. Fortunately for me, I had a lot of work to hit hard when I got back. It helps keep the mind busy.

There you have it, the official unofficially licensed report of my impromptu visit to Seattle.

Items of Note, Continued.

Class, before we begin today's discussion, I'd like you all to watch a short film. Today's exercise will be based on this film, so pay attention. A pop quiz will be given after our discussion, you may want to take notes!



Alright, now I know that Matrix: Reloaded was a "bummer" of a movie on the whole, but this exchange has many very important points. I was reminded of these points on Monday evening when I was out with JD, Seth and Kendall. Now, we could go on all night with this bit, but there are two main parts I'd like to discuss (parts 4 and 5 of our series on Items of Note).

4. The problem is choice. I know that this is a bit vague, but it is meant to be that way. My interpretation is that the problem not only lies in the fact that I choose or have already chosen, but that my life is affected by the choices of others. In the end, all I can really do is live my life how I see fit, make the choices that I see as right, and live with the choices that others make. "While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control." I feel that this quote from the discussion is somewhat misleading. The Architect means that he/it is able to control others, whereas I see it as I can control how I react to the choices of others and the choices I will make in the future (hey, here's and idea, I think I'll talk about not believing in fate in a future post). So, in the end, all we have are the choices we make, based either on ourselves or in reaction to what situations we have be thrust toward. What choices have I decided upon? To be happy. To live life how I want. Most importantly, to not let a minute get by without making a conscious decision to do what is right for me. I can't say if this is the right way to go about things (I'll make sure to let you all know if I got this one wrong, but let's say no news is good news), but it's the path I have chosen. What this leads to is...

5. Hope, it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. This, I absolutely think is true. It is through hope that we can find the power to accomplish anything (see "The American Dream"). However, when hope is shall we say, misguided, it can lead a person to do things for the wrong reasons. This can make a person just sit and hope forever without acting (I'm talking to all of you out there lighting the "Casanova Candle" to get a date instead of getting out there and finding one). I guess where I'm going with this one, is that a person should always remain hopeful, keep the porch light on in case someone wants to come over, but not to the extent that that is all you have. Hope, but act as well, being mindful of the choices you are making. Nothing worth doing comes easily, just always keep you mind open. Boy, this one has really gone all over the place. Sorry about that.

Well, that's all I have right now. I know many of you were expecting a quiz, I'm sure most of won't complain about us passing on this little quiz. Maybe another time. More points of note to come in the future. As they grab my attention I'll pass them along to you.

Items of Note

These are a few things I have learned in recent past.

Okay, that may not be completely true. There may be items in this list that I knew before, but have been, shall we say, reinforced as of late.

Let us begin.

1. Do not combine your eyeball and Hydrogen Peroxide. Putting these two together often results in pain. Pain which is even hard for a cyclist who has had two complete knee reconstructions to fathom. Symptoms range from burning to mild redness via the following route: burning, screaming, suffering, crying, searing pain, coming to terms with stupidity, mild irritation and finally to redness. This lesson brings us to our second in the list...

2. Pay attention to what people say or do. When someone says, I don't know, maybe something like, "Oh, you can just use my contact solution." You must either (a) pay attention to where that person is pointing (which was the other contact solution on the top shelf), or (b) notice that they use a strange new contact case. Which brings us to...

3. If you did not follow the lessons learned in 2, one should, at the very least, read the label. Had this happened, I would have known that I should not use this solution without the proper case that helps the cleansing process and after not less than 6 hours should I think of taking this out, because it requires at least that much time to neutralize the Hydrogen Peroxide. Oops, that was my bad.

That's our lesson for tonight kids, stay tuned for more.

P.S. Seattle weather is total crap. I do have a ton to say about the trip (aside from the little tidbit above), but just wanted to get this out of my system. Other than the weather the trip was quacktastic.

Details!

Ok, I know, I'm a slacker, but there's a lot going on right now. Let's just say I'm doing ok and a change of scenery has presented itself as an opportunity for this weekend, and after much deliberation and talking to a few people I took it. Until Monday morning I'm in the land of...
STARBUCKS! Coffee, coffee everywhere and many drips to drink! I know this is a crappy phone shot, but it was snowing in Seattle. I hear this isn't supposed to happen. To think, I was trying to escape snowy weather. That'll learn me.

Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow, maybe never...I'll give more details. We'll have to find out later. For now, I need more coffee.