Xmas 06, Awesome Eagles
Christmas 2006 is in the books. All in all I have no real complaints. It was nice having a couple days off before the big day.
On the way home from work on Friday I stopped to get groceries. I was excited to see Publix had these little mini-live Christmas trees. I got one. This isn’t one of those bushes they call a tree. If planted outside it has the potential to reach 70 feet high! My plan is to try planting it in a big pot and nurse it along for a few years until it is big enough that we could use it as a Christmas tree, afterward it could get permanently transplanted outside. It’s an optimistic plan but who knows, maybe it will come to fruition. I also grabbed three pointsettas. Our neighbors planted one last year outside and now it is a huge, 5 foot tall plant. I am planning to plant ours as well and am looking for similar results.
On Saturday Ali was up early to go help work a race on Marco Island. Originally she talked about going to work after the race but she reconsidered. While she was gone I picked up around the house a bit and then took to the big task of cleaning the pool area. Earlier that morning I flipped on the pool heater and set it to 90 so we would be able to get some holiday pool time in. I stripped all of the furniture, plants and knick knacks off the pool deck and then pulled out the pressure washer. Somewhere between two and three hours later I was finally done.
Saturday night we went out to dinner with the neighbors. We went to a place that is owned by friends of theirs. It had great food, was tastefully decorated and I think I was the only hetero-sexual guy there. It was a bit weird for me but I got over it. One of their friends that joined us for dinner picked up the tab which I couldn’t believe. Evidently he is doing quite well.
On Sunday, Christmas Eve, Ali and I did some whirlwind cleaning to get ready for mom’s arrival. Then Nicki and I hopped in the car and went to pick her up. We had a nice time. We watched National Lampoons Christmas Vacation part in the pool, part inside. Then we watched Napoleon Dynamite which my mom didn’t get in the least. It still made me laugh a lot. Finally later that night we watched The Devil Wears Prada. I have head a lot of hype about it, how good it was. Even though it’s plot didn’t seem like anything I would be interested in, Ali and my mom were both excited to see it so I watched it along with them. It was ok. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad. Meryl Streep did a great acting job. There were a lot of good looking women in it. The plot though seemed like something I have seen played out a half dozen times. Mom asked me my rating, I gave it a B- which was maybe artificially inflated because I didn’t want to give the impression that it was torture to watch it. She surprised me when she said it was a C+, she wasn’t all that impressed either. I guess you can’t always believe the hype.
Well just like last year, I slept straight through Christmas eve, something that used to be an impossibility. I used to always wake up somewhere between 3am and 5am and not really sleep after that because of the anticipation. Not anymore, I slept straight thru, waking up at my semi-normal time of a bit after 6. Mom got up a little after me at 6:30 ish. Ali got an early wake up call when the phone rang around 7. I scrambled to get it. I was thinking to myself “Who the F would be calling at 7am Christmas morning” It was Ali’s work. On the other end was a Haitian woman with a thick accent that made it hard for me to understand what she was saying. She asked for Alison and I told her she was sleeping. I asked her what was wrong. She said something about not being able to find spaghetti sauce and some other stuff for the menu today. Not wanting to wake Ali still, I asked her if it was something Alison could call her back about. No, no I need to talk to Alison… Ok, so I reluctantly go back to the bedroom and inform Ali that work was on the phone, something about missing spaghetti sauce. Ali was not happy. After she gets off the phone I ask her about it and she is so mad she doesn’t even want to talk about it. She said the missing stuff is probably there, unfortunately the kitchen staff’s english skills are so shaky that they can’t reliably read labels on cans. Ugh.
So we got an earlier start on opening presents than I thought we would. Even though we spoke of the need to be more frugal this year, we had a big pile. I would estimate we were at it a solid hour. Nicki probably had more presents than anyone, lots of dog treats and toys. It’s funny, she seems to get excited when presents are being opened, she even grabs them and tries to pull at the paper sometimes.
I made out very well. If you can’t tell I am a 13 year old in a decrepit 39 year old body, my loot list should make it clear. I got some more adult gifts like, an industrial strength nose hair trimmer, underwear, socks and a display case for the poker chips I collect from various casinos. But I also got an RC helicopter, Hot Wheel Sizzler cars (electric hot wheels) and a World of Warcaft came card as well as a yet to come copy of the WoW expansion, Burning Crusade.
I also got something I threw on my list as a pie in the sky item, the Logitech Harmony 890 remote. It is an upgraded version of the Harmony remote I already have had and loved for a year or so. This model has more functions, a color lcd screen, rechargeable batteries and is advertised as an IR/RF remote. Sine my Bose Lifestyle 20 system uses RF instead of IR for remote control, I thought I could finally control EVERYTHING with this remote. It was not cheap which was why I was surprised to see it under the tree.
I also got gift cards, both plastic and virtual ones that will let me buy stuff at Home Depot, ebay, amazon, Tiger Direct and anywhere when mom gave me an American Express gift card. It was quite the stash. Ali seemed pleased with all of her stuff I got her. The last thing I gave her was a gift certificate to a local dance studio where she could take classes in the style of dance of her choice. She is a great natural dancer and loves to dance. I think she will really enjoy it. I wrapped the certificate in a box, along with a 5 pound plate weight to throw her off, a tactic I have used several times throughout the years.
Mom made a french toast breakfast which we enjoyed out on the lanai. Unlike last Christmas that was very chilly, it was almost summerlike, with temps in the mid 70’s in the morning and lower 80’s later in the day. After breakfast we all went into the pool for a Christmas day swim. The heater had some more time to work and raised the temperature another few degrees from the day before, it was right around 91 or 92 degrees. We stayed in the water a long time as we talked and played with my pool torpedo. By the time we got out I was totally pruned up. We made our rounds of holiday phone calls. We couldn’t get ahold of my grandmother which I felt bad about. Luckily I got ahold of her later that evening for a brief, mostly confused conversation.
Mom stayed for lunch and then shortly afterward she was ready for me to take her home. Again Nicki accompanied me for the trip and we dropped mom off and thanked her for everything. I think she had fun.
When we got back, Ali had already started the tedious process of trying to clean up some of the Christmas chaos which I was glad to see. I jumped in and did the same, trying to put away everything that I could. Then I started playing with my stuff. I configured the new remote control but was annoyed to see that I was wrong in my ideas that it could control my Bose system out of the box. Bose, while they make a nice system, they aren’t big on making it a compatible system. In order to control it, I need to find some converter that allows it to use IR signals. The good news is there is/was such a device that does it, the bad news is it seems to have gone out of production and all sources that used to carry it, no longer do. I scoured the internet looking for leads on this elusive device called the C-1024 to no avail. My only hope is to find a used one I suppose. Evidently the RF part of the new harmony remote is just an RF extender that allows you to control devices that are not in line of sight or are tucked away in a media cabinet, oh well, it still is cool.
I spent a lot of time playing with my new rc helicopter. A few years back I got a toy rc copter. However it had a severe limitation, you basically couldn’t control it. The only control it had was for the speed of the rotor blades and supposedly through careful manipulation of that you could control direction. Well that was bullshit. All you could do is get it up in the air and then chase it down from whatever direction it decided to go. It just wasn’t much fun and I sold it on ebay shortly afterwards.
Well evidently technology has improved over the last few years. the new one I got cost almost half what the shitty one did, like 39.99 but it works much better. It has full dual stick control, a lithium battery for long flight times and a tough and ingenious dual rotor design that makes it survive abuse and make the learning curve less steep.
My initial flights were a bit rough. The copter would shoot right into the air but had a bad tendency to spin which in turn resulted in me overcorrecting, sending it plummeting to the ground. Also, heavy throttle would make it climb very fast and if it got within a foot of the ceiling it would suck itself up to it, pinning itself until I cut throttle severely, resulting in another plummet. However after maybe three or four flights I got the hang of it. I moved the trim adjustment as far as it would go to cut back on the spinning. It still spins more than it should but for 40 bucks what can you expect? I learned how to be light with the controls and was able to keep it hovering for as long as I wanted. It is very cool. Nicki is scared of it, of course. If I can get a day where there is absolutely no wind I may take a shot at flying it outside where there are no ceilings or walls to interfere.
Later in the afternoon I went over and picked up the neighbor’s dog. We dog sat because they went up to Sarasota overnight. It’s always fun when she is over, for the most part. Her and Nicki interact together well and Zoe is entertaining in her own right. That night she did her normal sleep in bed under the covers move. Unfortunately she picked me to lay up against which woke me up several times an by the time morning came I was perched on the right most 6 inches of the bed. I was up very late Christmas night playing WoW. I had to do the next part of my epic mount quest which I didn’t finish up till damn close to midnight.
Yesterday was very laid back. I had off from work but Ali didn’t. So I had Nicki and Zoe home with me. Basically my day consisted of doing laundry, taking the dogs out several times and playing warcraft. I took the dogs out together each time. It is very funny. They seem to always want to go in opposite directions, often leaving me out in the yard in a crucified position as my arms are fully extended in both directions holding onto a leash with each one. Zoe is fascinated with excrement. When Nicki does her business I need to hold Zoe back, otherwise she would be in there with her nose, inches away. After Nicki finishes, Zoe insists on inspecting the result and peeing on it. Dogs are weird.
Zoe also can be very needy. Sometimes she will just sit there and start at you and whimper and whine. At one point she just sat there and stared at me forever. She had recently went out and ate so I had no idea what she was yearning for. Several times I would try to appease her by giving her extra treats. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. She is very protective of her household, whichever one she is in at the time, she carried on like bloody murder when the postman, ups guy and a box turtle approached the house. She would bark like mad. It actually scared Nicki and she would come and hide under my legs at the computer desk. Eventually Zoe chilled out and napped for awhile on the sofa. She is a funny dog.
Yesterday I finished up my epic mount quest, it was involved and expensive but now I have an awesome , fast horse. It has flames coming out from everywhere. I also got a new headpiece for my warlock that makes him look scary as hell, it’s bad ass. When I am on my flaming horse it just looks like you wouldn’t want to say boo to me.
Wow that Eagles game was as good as it gets, seriously. I am so happy to eat my prediction of utter failure for their season. Instead they seem to be peaking at exactly the right time, much like the Steelers did last year. Both sides of the ball are playing very well. How can you top beating the Cowboys, in Dallas, for the second time this year, have it guarantee you a playoff spot, set you up to win the division and do it in convincing, ass spanking manner, on CHRISTMAS??!! Man it was sweet. TO got a touchdown but was basically ineffective again and griped again afterward, I love it. Jeff Garcia may not look pretty getting it done but he is getting it done and he wears his emotions on his sleeve which I really am enjoying. There is something about a guy that gets visibly pissed off and excited when he plays that makes you cheer for him. Good for Jeff. I hope they can keep riding this wave, it is unexpected which makes it all the better.
Today I resume my gym routine. I feel better. Not 100% but maybe close to 90%. I won’t have an accurate barometer till I see how the session goes. I put in for next Tuesday off, I want to have back to back four day weekends, you don’t get a chance for that very often.