Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Christmas Story - The recap and proof there is a Santa Claus

When we left off Christmas Eve day, I was preparing the servingware used to deliver Santa his treats at our house. The real action with this stuff takes place after a trip up to my wife's father's family Christmas.

We usually celebrate Christmas on several different occasions. Kids love it. I think I drive to much. Someday, I hope to find a happy middle ground. Until then...sigh.

The trip up to OhCountess' grandparents house is always filled with fun and food. After indulging in far too much food, we adjourn to the basement were the gifts are passed out by the kids. This is a pretty big deal because this is a pretty big family.

Part way through passing out the gifts, Santa shows up every year! He's such a good fella. All the grandkids get presents from Santa, even us almost 40 somethings with kids. Loads of fun!

When it's time for the hour long drive home, we pack up the kid's loot in the minivan and head back. I must admit that this year, my wife and FIL got me a great surprise of a present. For those of you in the south, and not even necessarily the deep south, you might not appreciate this, but for all you upper Midwest guys; they got me insulation for the attic in my garage! What a great present! I'm now saving up for the furnace that goes in there.

When I built the house, we installed the duct work, thermostat wires, gas line and electricity. All that's missing is the furnace unit itself. A few more poker tournaments, and I should have it. BTW - we got the insulation installed yesterday. Takes about an hour with 3 guys, one of which is named Grandpa and is watching the kids. Thank you Grandpa!
Once we get home and just before the little one slips into extreme deep sleep, we gotta get things ready for Santa. Remember, the bowel, plate and cup?

I'm sharing with you a few action shots of the girls getting it ready.

Seemed to me like OhPrincess2 was taking charge this year. I think she really wanted to make sure everything went just right!

We've got carrots for the reindeer.

There's cookies and milk for Santa.

I'm eyeing up that big box containing the rest of the cookies. There are spritz cookies in there. Anyone else sometimes wonder if those are a Class 1 Narcotic?

By mid January I'll have the shakes. Why do those cookies only get made once a year?

The girls did a great job of getting it ready!

They even allowed me one nice shot all posed and smiling.

This wasn't the first take. Getting them both smiling is always a trick.

We have very strict rules in our house in regards to Christmas morning. No one is allowed to leave the 2nd floor of the house until Mom and Dad are ready to get out of bed. OK...Mom is ready to get out of bed.

There was that year a while back when OhPrincess1 got that Barbie Talking Townhouse for Christmas at Grandma's house and someone thought it would be a good idea if I had that set up and ready to go Christmas morning. I'd swear there was a thousand 1 mm square stickers to put on. 3:30 AM that thing finally was done. I'm not bitter.

All in all, the kids got far too many toys. I ate far too much food but we had a blast following Santa using NORAD's tracking tool. It was working fabulously on my iPhone.


When mom gave the green light to head down stairs we got an immediate status report on the state of Santa's treats. THEY WERE GONE! OMGoodness! There are little bits of carrots left with teeth marks!

OhPrincess1 was happy to report that Santa is also a cookie dunker too! We here at the OhCaptain residence love to dunk our cookies in milk.



I present to you a close up of Exhibit A.
These are the carrots left for the reindeer. You can clearly see that they were indeed eaten. Several of them have teeth marks.
Exhibit B.
The milk cup. There was definitely something going on this cup last night. Look at the bits of cookies stuck to the sides and bottom of the cup. Well? Still not convinced?
Exhibit C.
Crumb, crumbs and more crumbs. We all know what a huge hurry Santa is in on Christmas eve. He ate these so quickly that he left quite the pile of crumbs. Mom and Dad were certainly grateful that Santa kept the crumbs to the plate, a little on the table, a bit more on the chair. OK. Santa wasn't really that neat.
The rest of Christmas morning we spent with just our family. We exchange gifts just between the four of us. At some point, someone notices that beside a few presents under the tree for the kids, Santa filled our stockings to the brim. More chocolates and goodies for EVERYONE!

Later on, we packed up the minivan and headed back to our home town to celebrate with my family. More food. More gifts (all of them fabulous!) and having my wife watch "A Christmas Story" for the first time. Yes, I was shocked. She know understands the lamp and the "put your eye out" jokes I sometimes mutter.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year. On Friday, we had one more Christmas celebration. My MIL and boyfriend, my SIL and niece came to our house. Ah! No driving. In exchange for the car keys, I took my first crack at roasting a turkey. I've cooked many things in my life, but never roasted a turkey. Being the geek that I am, I turned to King Geek Cook #1, Alton Brown, and prepared the bird "Good Eats" style. Here's Part 1...truly inspirational stuff.



But tomorrow, I go back to work. A three day week and then it's New Years. Another forced day off for us. I haven't decided if there will be more time off or not. Maybe, maybe not. I do know that I'm starting to look forward to a life returning to a bit more routine. I have things I need to be writing about. I went to Vegas not too long ago but returned to the real world too busy to write about it.

I hope all your holidays were spectacular and the time with your family was rewarding and revitalizing.

What was your Christmas like? Has Alton Brown saved your meal? Could there be a more perfect show for the geek that likes to cook? Is it possible for me to continue writing questions?

Happy Holidays everyone!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Putting out a spread for Santa

Again, Tismee2 over at Squared Off put up a post that I just needed to share my answer to with more detail.

She asked her readers what traditions there families had when it came to take care of Santa on Christmas eve. What a great question!

One of the things I like most about these here intertubes is it's power to break down barriers...like the Atlantic Ocean. Tismee2, you see, is across the pond in England.

I'm fascinated by how different cultures handle similar events and holidays. Santa, isn't an American, he's a citizen of the world.

What I'm showing you here today is something my wife, the world greatest decorate and detail keeper, picked up at the Pottery Barn a few years ago. It's the Christmas Eve Santa Treat Kit. Flip Fantasia!

Each year, after spending Christmas Eve with OhCountess' father's family, we come home and prepare a spread for Ol' Saint Nick and his entourage. They get the good stuff at our house.

What's on the menu?

  • Milk
  • Homemade cookies
  • And for the reindeer - baby carrots.
I'm gonna try and snap some pictures later, more like action shots, but for now, notice how clean and shiny they are for tomorrow morning there will be messy dishes!

What kinda spread do you put out for Santa on Christmas Eve?

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Your Santa Tracking Headquarters

We take Santa very seriously in our house. In my attempt to make sure everyone is informed, I'm adding this post to help all those waiting for Santa keep track of him, but please remember, you must be in bed and sleeping when it's your turn no matter how excited you are...period. That means you too mom and dad.


Use this gadge to track Santa on Christmas eve!



Merry Christmas Everyone from my family to yours!

Yeah, yeah. I know. Written posts would be cool. I'm taking offers to sell things to buy more time. I'm still in the 3 digits behind on reading everyone else's blogs. I apologize.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Now this is a winter storm

If you go back through the blog, you should see other pictures I've
taken looking off the deck. This is that view. You are correct. You
can't see my neighbors house. We can't see across the street in the
front either.

Enjoy! (I don't think we are leaving the house today)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

New Christmas Traditions

Since I'm one of the new guys on the floor, I don't understand the history behind my office's holiday traditions.

One of my goals for the Las Vegas trip was to find a "White Elephant" present for the floor's office party. I had no idea what this involved, so I had to look it up...and I'll be honest, I still didn't get it.

Today was our party. When we were in Las Vegas, at M&M World (Highly recommend this), they ran a special that if you spent $45 you got a free M&M dispenser with one of the color characters on top - works like a bubble gum machine. I know, it was free, but we bought enough to get 2 more...I wanted one so I figured others would as well.

All in all, I think most of the gift were acceptable. Many were fun, some practical and others made you scratch your head.

I present to you, the gift sitting in front of me after the stealing and exchanging was done. I think it was a win...this is kinda cute. You think princesses will like? It sings!



Sometimes I wonder what I've gotten myself into.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Let's pause for station identification

We are back from Las Vegas. This geek was essentially without Internet for almost the entire time we were gone. Seems I could never get the $30 in room wi-fi working (phone call to support lead to no where...calling back). For much of the weekend, the Edge network on my iPhone was also A.W.O.L

Not that it really mattered. OhCountess and I were having a great time. Beers were drank. People were met. More beers were found and drank. Poker was played. Much laughing. Much beer. More laughing. Oh! We found a buffet (like that's hard to do in Vegas). I finished 5th in a private poker tournament for poker bloggers. Over 9 straight hours of poker action. Believe it or not, large multi-table poker tournaments are draining. (I know, how can sitting in a chair for 9 hours be draining...trust me, brain jello is the result)

The weekend was filled with things I want need to write about.

But first, I need to sleep. As is expected of Las Vegas, I hadn't seen the back of my eyelids for much of the weekend. I'm wiped.

Google Reader has ~500 unread entries. Read or write? I'm choosing to sleep for tonight.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Goodbye Tundra

About to leave on our trip. Not sure I'll miss this weather.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Christmas Traditions: The Kitchen

Probably the most important room during the holidays is the kitchen.


I love food. I love cooking food and I really love eating food. Probably why this site exists.

This room gets the royal treatment every holidays season. The Santa bowel bowl you see in the center of the island? Holiday M&M's...oh boi!

I have no idea where OhCountess got this little bit of holiday cheer, but seriously this is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Santa's clothes hanging on the line!

I love it!
This plate rack on the wall is one of my wife's most brilliant decorating touches.

Each holiday, season or when ever she wants a change, all she does is changes the plates. OMG! How simple but how powerful. 

I never have to change out the rack, but she can change out the plates with ease.

I love my wife.

The corner where our sink is doesn't avoid the touch of Christmas cheer.

We have another string of Santa's clothes drying. This plate rack is always cool.

I'm surprise, but at first, people don't always know what it is.

(It's a snowman...shh)

Last, as we head to the mud room, We have this one last sign.

Bah! Hum Bug!

Happy Holidays!

Tomorrow, we are heading to Vegas. I'm sure I'll be sending posts from my phone until we are settled (like you really get settled in Vegas).

Stay warm!

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Christmas Traditions: Part 2

When we last talked, the topic was decorating the tree. Today, the topic is short and sweet.


Tismee2 over at Squared Off, has asked (more then once) to see more of the inside of our house. This is entryway right next to my office.

OhCountess is a fabulous decorator! Every where you turn in our home, she's got the details covered.

The Santa rug is one of my favorites. I just love crossing it to get to my desk.

So, my faithful readers, what are some of your decorating traditions? Have you started yet? When are you getting your pictures posted?

As OhPrincess2 likes to say, "I love it when we get our Christmas on!"

Monday, December 08, 2008

Christmas Traditions

I'm gonna catch you up on our holiday traditions before they pass me by, I swear. Tismee2, thanks for the idea!


When last we talked about the holidays at our house I showed you a bit of the outside of the house. Whew! So glad I got that done. We are about to get 10 inches of snow. Well, at least that's what the weatherman said. We'll see.

This past weekend, we finally got the inside of the house done. Today, I'm gonna share the decorating of the tree.

The decorating of the tree is a HUGE deal in our house. OhPrincess2 has cried herself to sleep a couple of times wanting to decorate the tree.

2 weeks ago, we got the tree up and the boxes with all the ornaments located. Some how, I always figure this should be an easier process, but it never is. Our house gets the full Christmas treatment. There is very little missed. That ends up being a lot of boxes. No wonder my back hurts?

Each year, one of the girls gets to put the topper on the tree. I try to make sure it's not the same girl two years in a row...and they remember who it was. This year it was OhPrincess1's turn. This is the second year on this tree, you'd think by now we'd remember that the topper is too tall...hmm.

Probably my favorite part of decorating the tree is that it truly is family time. We do it as a team. The TV is turned off and the Christmas music is turned on. Everyone has a special ornament that they get to hang and then it's off to the races.

When it's all done, the soft glow of the lights just warms the room.

OhCountess even got a few presents wrapped. It really starts to feel like Christmas with this part done.


One tradition that we've kept since our first Christmas as husband and wife is that this ornament is the first one on the tree. To us, this symbolizes the beginnings of our family. Two kids fell in love and created a home. This ornament started it all.

Sunday, December 07, 2008

Have you seen my marbles?

Lately I've been struggling. I've been stuggling to find time to write. I'm only now catching up on everyone's blogs. Google Reader hasn't even come close to 0 unread items in WEEKS.

It might be that I'm in the final months of my 30's. Maybe it's the coming of winter. I wouldn't discount the kids have finaly got me to crack, but I'm making a leap into the unknown and I'm taking the Mrs. with me.


Thursday afternoon, OhCountess and I are boarding an airplane whose final destination is Las Vegas, NV.

We've gone to Vegas before, but this time is much different. 

As some of you know, I play a bit of poker in my free time.  I chronicle my pokering adventures in another blog called OhCaptain Poker.  Yeah, yeah. I know. 2 blogs. I'm crazy. Actually, don't forget the photography blog and the blog chronicling my efforts to get into smaller jeans.

So what am I babbling about? You know how those crazy mommy/ladies have that big BlogHer thing that they babble on and on about? Well, poker bloggers aren't nearly that organized. Heck, daddy/guy bloggers aren't that organized.

Next weekend, poker bloggers are gathering, by consensus mind you, in Las Vegas for the weekend. Dang! Aren't poker bloggers creative. Gather together in capital of gambling to play poker, laugh, drink and meet face to face, and somehow, I convinced OhCountess that not only it exists but we should go.

I'm about excited as a teenager looking forward to their first after-prom party. I don't know what to expect. Ever never really done anything like this before. Any thing this impulsive.

I've had the pleasure of meeting one of the bloggers in person before. She's a very nice Canuck and I'm looking forward to seeing her again. Our first meeting was only for a few short hours and much of that time was spent with people sleeping.

This coming weekend is going to blur my blogs for a bit. They will converge into a swirling mess of spinning words and photographs. 

The weekend doesn't have much structure. There are no real planned events other then a private poker tournament at the Venetian (OMG! I get to play in a private poker tournament at the Venetian!!!!) This tournament sounds like a blast. All the bloggers playing one big private tournament with the bounties on each player being something that they brought that represents them and where they are from. I'm thinking I will bring a framed copy of the photo...what do you think?

Friday afternoon, I'm joining a group of the more geeky bloggers and heading to the Pinball Museum. Ever wonder how rich you'd be if you hadn't dropped uncounted quarters into those things?

The other highlight of the weekend is that OhCountess and I will be travelling together again, just the two of us.

Stay tuned! We are finishing up our Christmas decorating this weekend. It does really takes us 3 weekends to get it all up which probably explains why we leave it up through most of January as well. There's lots more to come!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Oh Me oh me oh mememe

Who knew? Saw this meme on (and was tagged by) Sean at Instant Donahue. What the heck...I'll even cross post this on two blogs...I'm feelin' saucy...

I'm a Porsche 911!



You have a classic style, but you're up-to-date with the latest technology. You're ambitious, competitive, and you love to win. Performance, precision, and prestige - you're one of the elite,and you know it.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Consider yourself tagged for reading this and I'm one of those tech guys that knows you read this...so don't tick me off!

(just kiddin' - I don't tick off easy :-D )

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Clearing out Thanksgiving & Cribs: Holiday Edition

Whew! The 4 day weekend is over. In a few ways, it will be really nice to get back to work tomorrow. Peace and quiet.


<--This picture was taken Thanksgiving Day. It's the two OhPrincess' and my still pretty fresh niece. Yep, OhCountess dressed every one of them in the same out fit. It's her thing and I've found it is just best to let it ride.

Traditionally, Thanksgiving weekend is the official kickoff to the great season of Christmas. Last weekend I did the prep work. I located all the boxes filled with Christmas crap decorations and got them into the basement to "warm up". 

A step back for all of you people that think cold is 60 F°. Here in Minnesota, if you want flexible wires, you thaw them out first.

Well, today we kicked off the holiday decorating. I've attached a photo of the Christmas tree. It's set up but it's not decorated. Lots to set up, the tree is a big process...I'll leave that for another post...

We also let the girls watch their first holiday movie. You see, we pack all the holiday movies away in the boxes with all the other holiday crap decorations so that no one can cheat and watch them out of season...

I could swear we have more movies then this, but ABC Family Channel seems to take care of the rest.

We try and make the day a lot of fun. OhPrincess1 tries on one of Mom's new holiday rugs.

She got the idea from her sister who found it easier to carry the "Ho, ho, ho" rug to the basement bathroom "Skirt style".

The other big happening of this weekend is the decorating of the outside of the house.
This is "Cribs: Holiday Edition"!

I'm hoping the other dad's that read this will be posting the pictures of the holiday decorating. OK, not really hoping more like, GET OFF THE COUCH, HANG THE DAMN LIGHTS AND TAKE SOME PICTURES!

I shared the pictures a few days ago (Cribs)...winter hadn't really taken hold yet, but apparently, Jack Frost has changed his mailing address for the season cause it's pretty cold and snowy here now.

No fears. I have gloves, hats and a wicked ability to just suck it up and take it. 39 consecutive winters here has given me some serious coping skills.

We really didn't get that much snow yet. One good, warm day and it will be gone, but for now, we have white lawns.

I'm not sure I'm done decorating the outside of the house yet. Since there was snow and ice on the roof, I couldn't get the lights on above the garage. There a few trees that might get the Charlie Brown Christmas motif. I might just let laziness cover me with a warm blanket and say screw it...it's good enough.

Tismee2 over at Squared Off has been posting about her holiday traditions. She seemed to start a bit earlier then I can handle. My plan is to post in near real time our traditions, kind of an as it happens approach. This is mostly because I can't remember them until I've already done them. Suffering from a serious case of CRS Disease (Can't Remember Shit).

I'm quite sure there is more I wanted to write about. I really need to just carry a notebook with me all day. I need a dvr for my brain.

Happy Holidays!

Look out the window!

There is a very good chance I will be shoveling the driveway today.

Friday, November 28, 2008

The Day After Thanksgiving Tradition

I got a lttile extra time in on the treadmill. Did you?

Happy Holidays from our family to yours

Send your own ElfYourself eCards


Have an Elftastic Holiday Season!

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

I was going to post a picture of my plate with the food on it but I
didn't take it fast enough.

Nap time!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving...


Tomorrow, I will be celebrating my 39th consecutive Thanksgiving Day. Just for giggles, I'm a geek remember, I looked up the definition of Thanksgiving in Wikipedia,

Thanksgiving, also known as Thanksgiving Day, is a harvest festival. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and expressgratitude in general. It is primarily a North American holiday which has generally become a national secular holiday with religious origins. The dates and whereabouts of the first Thanksgiving celebration are a topic of modest contention. Though the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida[1][2], the traditional "first Thanksgiving" is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621.

Today, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United StatesThanksgiving dinner is held on this day, usually as a gathering of family members.


I like to take this time to reflect over the last year. I read through what I wrote last year. That was a pretty good list. Most of it hasn't changed. I'm still really thankful for my family. I married the best woman possible...and as Weaselmomma would say, she's HAWT!!!!

I'm also very thankful to everyone that has commented in the last year. I really appreciate everyone that stops by.

It's time for me to spend some time with family. Be sure to say thank you to the people in your life. 

This is just wrong...

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Almost enough....

to shovel.

But nah! Tomorrow it's going to be 10 degrees above freezing. We'll
let Mother Nature take care of this one.

Gail - this one us for you ;-)

Friday, November 21, 2008

Ta da! I wrote a guest post

Kat, over at 3 Bedroom Bungalow, asked me, ya I couldn't believe it either, to write a guest post for her while she's moving her family from here in the states to jolly old England. This guest post was posted today! (That's your cue to go click the link and check out)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Cribs...

Father of Five started this a little while ago. He put a called cribs to share the home he lives in. I'm always on the hunt for fun post ideas and this one caught my eye.


I have a special bond with our home. You see, our home was designed by my lovely bride OhCountess. She did a fantastic job. FoF was looking for curb appeal, and I think OhCountess has a great eye for just that.

The other reason I'm quite proud of this home is that we did a great deal of the work ourselves with the help of our friends and family. My wife's father is a home builder and drove down to join me on the weekends. Let's get one thing straight...I have a strong back and weak mind when it comes to being handy. I did exactly what I was told.

It took about 6 months for us to get this thing done. Building it ourselves, it took much longer then a conventionally built home. I was working a normal day at the office, going home, eating supper and heading to this place.

Our landscaping continues to be a work in progress. Some of it we have hired out and other parts we've done ourselves. The deck on the back of the house, yep, another weekend spent with the FIL.

This is it. We call it home. Our backyard sits on a city park. The kids love that. I appreciate the work it takes to build one of these things. There are days my back still hurts. 

I got this post done just in time. Winter is approaching fast and furious. Soon, everything will be buried in snow. Hopefully it's not as much as last year. Our house faces the west. The snow drift in front of my garage last year got to 4 feet one storm. Everyone is welcome to come help shovel.

Thanks for visiting!

Award Time!

It's been a big week(ish) for me. Let's start with the real world: I won the Bourbonators Series of Poker. Well, I'm pretty excited.


Now for the meme style:
The Charming Blog Award
"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."
I was honor was given to me by Father of Five. Not only is he a fellow Minnesota and father, but he's a darn good writer as well. Being a father of five, he's got lots of stories to share about parenting. This time of year, he joins many of the other folks that live up here and practicing on of our oldest fall activities...hunting.

Thank you very much for your kind words FoF!

Lemonade Award

Dmarks at throwawayblog decided that I qualified for this award. He felt I showed great Attitude and/or Gratitude. I do like to say thank you :-)

The rules are as follows -
  • Put the logo on your blog or post.
  • Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
  • Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
  • Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
  • Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.
Be sure to check out his blog. There is more information there about neck of the woods then I even knew about...and dmarks lives in Michigan! Go figure!

Throwing A Nut to A Squirrel

Weaselmomma at World of Weasels threw this squirrel a nut. According to her site: 
“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”
On a spin of what WM had to say, I really like the phrase, "Even a blind squirrel can find a nut." And I thought I was stalking her blog.

I can't imagine I have any readers not already avid fans of World of Weasels. This mom of Weasels writes a blog I look forward to every day. From the FlatWeaselMomma tour to homemade commercials...she's got the goods. While you are there...remember to click her ads. You'll be glad you did!

Here comes the point where I pick X bloggers to share this award with. Yikes. Here's what I'm gonna do. If you are in my blogroll, consider youself tagged!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

A quick conversation

Tonight, when tucking our 5 year old into bed, I asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Seems they spent part of the afternoon going through the Toys-R-Us Big Book.

"I want a WebKinz, Daddy."

"Cool. Which one do you want?"

"I want the hawk."

I didn't even know they had a hawk. Normally my girls are all about the kitties and the puppies. This definitely needed more investigation...

"Interesting honey, why do you want a hawk?"

"Cause it will eat my sister."

Ain't my daughter sweet.

How to: Filling A Priorities List

In my never ending quest to provide the highest quality of drivel available on the Internet, I present to you today the highlights of what it's important or at least interesting to me. Cause, this is my blog, I have no editors and there is just a bunch of things I need to get out here so I can go back to be a slave to the reminder notices on my iPhone. 


Here are the things you need to add to your priorities list.
Spread the click love

It dawned on me today, that we, people of the blogging community, whatever the heck that is, could do some good for our fellow bloggers in this tough economy. Besides doing our best to make sure that the current President understands that he won't go down in history as a great prez, we should help those among us that might need a few extra dollars to get over the hump.

WeaselMomma is a proud Midwestern mother and wife of weasels whose hubby was recently laid off. Lay offs suck. I know as a father and husband that my fear of not providing for my family scares the hell out of me. 

WeaselMomma is not the kind of lady looking for a hand out, so I had an idea, well actually, she mentioned it on her blog and I'm running with it cause basically I'm lazy and this is really easy. Head over to her blog and start clicking the hell out of her ads. How hard is that? Heck, while you are there, give her a read. She's one of my favs. Be sure to find the video commercial and their constitution...good stuff.

Father of Five: It's dark at like 3pm now...what gives?

Father of Five posted a few days ago pictures of his Crib. What a cool post idea! He challenged the rest of us to do the same. Well, I'm always looking for ideas of content to put here...I could do that. I'm a daddy blogger and the like...but this Central Standard Time thing is turning this into a huge problem. Last weekend, we had house guests for the entire weekend and I somehow didn't get out side to shoot pictures of the house. Crap! Cause during the week, I'm not a morning person. If I find it, I'll post the pictures of me, as a 4 year old, wearing my favorite t-shirt that said, and I quote "I hate mornings'. Yep. This is a life long love affair with sleeping in. Anywho. It's friggin' dark after work now. Seriously. The sun sets at noon now? More on my crib coming soon. OhCountess works this weekend...someone PLEASE remind me to take the shots.

Christmas Traditions

Tismee2 over at Squared off, had another great idea for a series of blog posts. What are your Christmas Traditions. You know, what a fantastic idea! My traditions will be starting up here shortly. When they do...I'll be posting...I just can't start them until Thanksgiving weekend...that's the first of my traditions :-)

She's moving to England and asked me to guest post

Kat is moving to England. This isn't news if you've been following her blog. You've been following, right?

The big move is going on RIGHT NOW. Their stuff is packed, the movers are moving, the pets are en route and so is the family. While in transit, she asked me to write a guest post. What a cool honor! I believe it will show up on November 21. Since I'm a daddy blogger and a husband, I am genetically incapable of remember dates...so I figure you should just go follow the blog every day until it posts. 5 other people are guest posting...you might just learn something useful.

But I thought this was the life and thoughts of a Midwest geek

Yeah. I have pictures to post. Ideas swimming in my head and a job. Free time is coming. I've been promised. In the mean time, I've loaded up the queue at the photoblog. That thing has another week or so of pictures just lined up and rolling off 1 a day for the next week and half. Time permitting this weekend, I'll be back filling the list even more...I'd love to hear what you think!

That's it for now, I've given you a long list of things to click and do. So go do it!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Looks Like We Made It!

Think we will ever break $1 again???

Friday, November 07, 2008

You knew it had to happen eventually

OhPrincess1 had to wake me up this morning to make sure I saw this.

*sigh

Thursday, November 06, 2008

Revolutionary War Comes Alive!

If you look really hard you can find OhPrincess1

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Let Us Remember - Hope & Change

Let me confess. For the first time in my adult life, I did not vote for a Democrat running for president. This was the 6th time I've cast a ballot for the office of president and the first time I didn't vote for a Democrat.

I heard the message of hope. There just wasn't enough plan there for me. Lots of sizzle and Mr. Obama is one of the greatest public speakers I've ever heard, but I just didn't see how he could institute all of his plans without an economically devastating tax plan.

That doesn't mean I was overly impressed with any other candidate.

I watched the tellie last night. OhCountess had it tuned to an NBC affiliate so we could also watch the local returns. I was shocked at how emotional the broadcasters got. I watched the crowds celebrate as if we'd been liberated from a dictator.

Today, I was called a racist since I didn't vote for Obama. Apparently, a vote for any other candidate meant you must be a racist. I hope this isn't where are nation is heading.

I've watched as the Obama supporters have gloated and disrespected John McCain. This has saddened me to no end. How petty of winners are the Obama supporters going to be? I thought this was the campaign for hope and unity?

During the Clinton administration, a great change occurred and the Republicans regained control of the House and the Senate. They celebrated and gloated and squandered every opportunity they had for fundamental change. Instead of doing good with their power, they chose to waste countless years attacking Clinton and eventually impeaching him. I fear the same thing will happen again (hopefully with far less stuff on dresses)

I'm a moderate. Somewhere between a Democrat, Republican and a Libertarian. I tend to be extremely fiscally conservative. History has taught us that when attempting to right an economy that is turmoil, raising taxes is devastating. That was my main issue this time. Cut spending. Cut waste, get job creation going again. It's as simple as that.

I'm very proud of our nation. We elected a man of color into the highest office in the land. I look forward to a day when that doesn't even matter and isn't even mentioned. Although I could never vote for a Green Bay Packer Fan...those guys are nuts. I hope that he can live up to his own hype. Frankly, I'm not sure I can understand the hysteria. I haven't really seen him do anything yet. Like I said, he's a great, and I mean one of the truly great, public speakers, but he's really not DONE anything yet. I hope he does. I fear the let down could be devastating if he doesn't live up to the hype.

My guess, I've offended someone in the last 24 hours by not understanding. I'm really a wait and see guy. I'll be waiting and seeing but fear what might happen if there is disappointment. I think there were a lot of people that voted for anybody that wasn't even remotely close to George W. Bush. He will probably go down as the worst president in history. I never voted for him, I've never thought he was fit to lead, but I also tried to keep in mind that his presidency will end in January, no matter who is elected president.

I hope that we as a nation move on and move on quickly. I also hope we don't repeat the mistakes of the past and get spiteful and vindictive. This isn't the time to be dwelling on what has gone wrong in the past and who screwed who. We have very serious problems that will require very serious answers. Pragmatism.

Lord I hope this is my last political post for a while. I miss being a smart ass.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Make This Your Election Headquarters

Seems this humble blogger will be providing election results for those interested following them.


Update:
I'm at poker league. I'm catching cards. D'oh! Looks like my crack crew has updated the map. Way to go! If I hear or see anything here at the bar, you will be the first to know!

7:57 pm: no political talk at the tables. Consensus is the election was today.


10:03 pm: I made it home. I'm watching NBC news. Tom Brokaw is emotional. Obama has been declared a the winner.


I saw this tonight and became immediately frightened. Do we honestly have expectations of this president that we won't have to worry about paying or mortgage or putting gas in our cars?



I really don't understand this.

10:14 pm: Why did I not cry? For me, this election was a very difficult choice. I'm actually more afraid of what might happen to our nation if the congress goes filabuster proof and everything is controlled by one party. Absolute power for one party? Seriously. That frightens me more then anything. The Republicans had that a few years ago. It was a disaster.

10:19 - We missed the SNL Election Bash last night. We are switching to it. I can't stand listening to the news broadcasters cry. Yikes.

11:09 - OhCountess fell asleep. I'm watching Obama's acceptance speech. One truly great thing about the next 4 years. Obama can speak. 8 years of one the worst public speakers has been tough for this speech coach to endure.

11:19 - Could the NBC news guys gush any more? Holy crap! You'd think we just landed on the moon again. Obama has been president-elect for about 1 hour. I don't see one thing fixed :-)

11:26 - Going to bed. Election coverage has gotten annoying. I really want to know how the Coleman / Franken race is going and the constitutional amendment to cap environmental spending. Let's hope Obama can live up to the hype. I fear a let down and what that will do. In case you are wondering, this has pretty much been a flow of conscientiousness. I'm exhausted. These views may not represent the views of the author or has brain.

I'm going to let all of this sink in and evaluate the events of the day. For those wondering, I'm neither disappointed nor angry. My feelings about either candidate are difficult to express. I also hope to return to the regularly scheduled program ASAP. I am really disappointed the Tina Fey is going to not really be needed very soon. Sara Palin (uff) will quickly slithering back into the woods.

My Office Election Results!

We took a very formal poll here at the office.


I'm sure these exit polls will be coming fast and furious. I'll be covering the election live on this blog as long I'm able to. The power of the press can easily be repressed though by da wife, da kids or I'm dealt really rockin' cards tonight at poker league.

Here are the results from my office:

McCain / Palin : 13
Obama / Biden : 6
Get the hell out of my office! / What are you talking about : 4

The Deed Is Done



I voted. Did you?