Thursday, December 25, 2008

A Quiet Christmas

Merry Christmas!



Our little Christmas tree.



Our Christmas picture.

E3 came to visit us for a little bit Sunday morning before heading up to Verndale. We let them open up their presents.



Ella opening her present!



Ella's new duffle coat that I think is spectacular!







E3 family portrait.



Snow outside of the window.



Snow again.

Over the weekend last weekend we made korv for our Christmas Eve meal with Katy's family. We mashed potatoes, onions, pork and beef into the intestine casing.



Sunday afternoon making the korv.



Grinding away.



Katy had to get in the mix.



Picture time.



Kinda gross. Stuffing the korv.



The final product.

Christmas Eve we went to Bob and Deb's with Katy's parents and grandparents and Josh and Laura. We ate korv and meatballs, potatoes, croissants, peas, corn, lingonberry washed down with Martinelli's sparkling apple cider. Dessert consisted of a layer of chocolate and coffee ice cream with oreo cookies crumbled in the mix and on top. It was delicious.



Bob and Deb's tree.



:)



Katy, me and Bella

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Stuff

My one finger is still struggling. My middle finger on my left hand is still going back and forth. Now my right thumb is splitting. I woke up with the gloves off this morning, and several other mornings. Odd.

We got a Christmas tree! Here it is.






Sorry-too lazy to fix it.

The Vikings decided to start Tavaris Jackson this Sunday. Well, duh! Gus is still hurt. What I don't understand is why you have to pull a QB at one point in the season and just can't re-start him? Like just because Nick Blackburn has two bad starts in a row don't you still throw him out there after that? When is it going to get fixed if you don't play him? I know the football season is 10x shorter than baseball but come on-how do you call him your starter and then pull him after two games and then be unable to put him back in. Silly.

We had ants and still do. I spent some time using the hand vacuum to send them on their way.

We also have a wonderfully clogged drain but don't worry-they're not going to fix it because it's from body oils or our hair. Apparently Katy and I are both oily and hairy.

My eyes are busted too. This is a serious note. As is everything in this post. It looks like my right eye underneath is swollen, dry, pealing and if I moisturize it it stings. Also, when waking up it seems as if the sleep is stuck on my eyeball and is always goupy. Do I have allergies or what? Am I going to look old and tired for the rest of my life?

It's going to snow some more tonight and I can't wait! :) I like watching the snow fall. Though if I had a climate choice of where to live it might not be around here. I mean, the cities are great but the weather isn't special.

"What's for dinner?" Katy asks.

Welp, talk to you later! Time to make dinner!

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Winter Fingers

Winter is a typically cold and dry season. This year is no exception with a few inches of snow on the ground already and a high of 13 some odd degrees today.

This has an impact on the human body-kind of like an everyday fight between the cold and your water-laden body drying you out, sucking all of the moisture out of anywhere it can.

I have some proof of that happening.



That is a crack in my thumb.



That is a crack in my pointer finger.



That is a crack on my middle finger.



That is a crack on my same middle finger.

I also have some proof of an idea from Katy. Though I'd like to call it me fighting back the cold. Check it out.








Yep, that's right. Sleep with these silly looking moisture locking gloves on.

Results so far?

Positive. I'm winning. :)

(Though, no telling how long I'll have to wear them this winter.)

(Hhmm, another point. I have ugly fingers.)

Monday, November 17, 2008

Goings On...

Well, we've been battling a snow shower or two here and there the last week but no accumulation so far. Tonight has been the coldest it's been in a long time-putting on as many layers as I can find acceptable since I'm always cold.

Also, we have been battling ants. Yes, ants. Are you crazy! One thing after another in this joint. First, our shower clogs after a week of showering which we've had maintenance come and "fix" three times in three months. This latest time Katy happened to be home to which led to a conversation about the garbage disposal. The garbage disposal you say? Yeah, same thing I said. Apparently, it is so weak and ineffective that the food we had been "disposing of" wasn't really going anywhere. So-in essence that was clogging our drain. Sick and wrong. How that makes any sense is beyond me. I hereby declare that people should install garbage disposals that work longer than 5 years! Or at least kindly replace them. Or at least inform their residents that they will not work or might not work.

So, we have about 4 locations of ants pouring-maybe marching-in this joint. It was previously nasty. They've slowed down lately but we're not sure if they've been frozen out because of the cold weather or because the ant traps we put down ran out of their poisonous food. Ants are nasty when they come in packs of billions!

We'll have to update you on when that mess gets fixed.

What else is going on?

Katy's back to work this week-Tuesday through Friday! Hopefully more after that.

I get to work 3:30 am until 2pm on the day after Thanksgiving! What a blast! Are you kidding me? That is why I will keep looking for something that suits me better. I might be good working with people, merchandising, directing, and all that but at times-lots of the time-retail is a very unforgiving and inconsiderate profession because someone thought it'd be a great idea not to make money before Thanksgiving.

Let me ask Dad this question. Teach me some things about business.

Why in a tough economy when retailers are very very quiet during the week to stores open earlier and stay open later with less staff on. Why not cut actual store operations hours and have a slightly smaller staff on? Last year-we had a one day Senior Day sale pretty much each Wednesday where we were open 8am to 9pm. Why then-in a tougher economy-do we now do a Tuesday and Wednesday Senior Day sale? Full staff in both mornings-totaling about 4 hours for those two days that is wasted payroll. We are not busy whatsoever until 10 or 11 am anyway. Two days in a row of 8am to 9pm of no merchandise flying out the door. But seemingly the CEO's, VP's and others say-I know a great way to make more money! Let's be open longer hours! Let's make our employees work 10 hours the day after Thanksgiving! Let's be open at 6am or earlier from November 15th through the last week in December! That's bound to bring people in because people are just salivating at the thought of shopping at 4,5,6 am! Aren't they?!!

Not that I can tell.

I guess we (well few people) are productive with finding yellow dot clearance, markdowns, re-merchandising, cleaning up after the inconsiderate sloppy shopper, filling in old and new product. But still-does that make financial cents? Haha-sense. I don't know, that's why I'm asking the question.

I talked to an assistant manager at the Puma store in Albertville. He said they were opening at 10pm on Thanksgiving, closing for 30 minutes at midnight!, and opening up again for a full day-until 9-10pm close that day! Insane! Honestly, CEO's-what is the point of that? I hope no one comes to prove sometimes your antics are insanely stupid and you can't always make money and be right. I want retail to do okay this Christmas (but it won't) only because people in the retail world are less stressed when they're doing better; but at the same time I hope it bombs so bad that the morons who think they have great ideas realize that sometimes they are not and retail employees are still people after all.

Anyway, he was going to have to work 15 hours that day. It's so pointless to open at 10pm on Thanksgiving. He said they had to close at midnight to get sales numbers to Puma Corp I guess. Then why open for 2 hours? That's why I hope no one shops at that time! Doesn't make sense to open for two hours, have to close and disrupt the "conviencnce" of your shopppers to reopen once your system restarts.

Katy and I went to the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, Friday morning for the $5 showing. It was an entertaining movie but it is still a Bond movie with some unrealistic lengthy scenes in it. (see-boat chase, car chase-too much crashing and not enough damage) But in the end it is still a very entertaining series and a money maker so why dull it up with reality? Right?

Someday I'm going to post a video on youtube to show you our apartment and the things Katy has decorated us with. I think our place has very nice things going on in here!

I'm still looking for a job. Know of anything for me?

I want to do something in professional track and field. Is it PR, marketing with it promoting the sport? Is it running a meet? Is it admin of the sport? Is it being an agent? Is it being an athletic director or a sports information director? Is it a freelance media guy-taping and interviewing and writing? Hhmm, that would be fantastic! I don't know.

All for now. Over and out.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

News Beliefs

Oh yeah, I have more news thoughts. Is the NBC Today Show, in the morning, a TV news program or a new age television talk show? Watch it sometimes and you'll find that it sometimes feels like a celebrity-laden talk show.

Katy and I are lucky enough to afford cable right now and each morning I flip on ESPN SportsCenter and the "news." Usually it's the Today Show where if you hit the "info" button on your remote you automatically find which celebrity is on the show. It never fails! Try it! Just turn it to the Today Show some morning and hit the "guide" or the "info" button on your remote and see what comes up when you do. You might find out that some celebrity is on the show rather than actual news!

This is sometimes how I feel about today's news.

Today's News

I know I don't normally post crap but this is actually a spoof but pretty funny and poignant about the crap that is on today's news.

Adrian Peterson is a Monster and other Packers vs. Vikings Thoughts

Wow, if the Vikings didn't have Adrian Peterson on their team today they would be reeling from another painful loss at the hands of the Green Bay Packers.

As I recall he ran the ball 30 times for 192 yards. Monstrous! He is a dazzling running back to watch-he's one of those playground kids who can impose his will on anyone! He's faster than linemen and linebackers and stronger than just about all defensive backs-if his speed also doesn't out run them.

He's got a great amount of field vision, speed, cutback ability, determination and fun in his step. I would want very few players on my team before him.

Anyway, the Vikes got two safeties and one of them should not have counted. Rodgers took the snap, dropped back and had the ball slapped from his hand. As it rolled into the end zone he picked it up while rushing his actions and threw it in the vague vicinity of his tight end, Tory Humphrey. The Packers were flagged for a safety and I was not sure why completely. That was a horrible call. He was in no one's grasp, wasn't in the tackle box, threw it outside the hash mark to a Packer reciever but it was deemed and "illegal forward pass." No where in my logical mind was that illegal anything. Was it awakard, unnatural and done in haste but the ball did go forward towards-though about 15 yards short-to a Humphrey. So, how now was that an illegal forward pass? He wasn't lateraling it, it wasn't an extremely unique play but the Vikes still got two points out of the deal. If that was Brett Favre would that have been called an illegal forward pass? Is it illegal to throw underhand on a more "normal" play? No and no.

Not that the Packers deserved to win the game but I'm just saying-that call did not make any sense. It was not an illegal forward pass-and it was hardly intentional grounding. He made a lame attempt at a forward pass, underhanded, in order to avoid the next Viking from landing on him-then costing him two points.

Then the Packers have no team discipline! If I have to see another yellow flag I am going to flip out and email Mike McCarthy himself! Shoot yourself in the foot much guys?

Umm, I had more but I'm not completely coherent with what I want to do next.

It must be too cold right now.

Oh, did you see Charles Gordon's ankle break? That was sick!

Here's the link on youtube. Charles Gordon breaks ankle.

DO NOT WATCH IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE HIS ANKLE HANGING OFF HIS LEG!
(Mom, Em, Meg...any other girl :)

Friday, November 7, 2008

Snow is the breaking news now!

It's 8:42 am November 7th, 2008.

It's snowing. It has been for the last couple of hours.

Some say it'll actually accumulate a little bit today-an inch or two.

Woa.