Christmas and beyond

I got some KILLER slippers for Christmas.



Conor is a WWI Flying Ace.



You wish you were cool enough to hang with us.



I bet the girls responsible for this are cold. (Those are bras)



I'm probably higher than a kite.

Flaming Candy Canes and other Christmas Merriment

So, for years, our street has put up candy canes on the edge of everyone's yard to celebrate the "Christmas spirit." Lately, I've gotten really tired of doing it, but we haven't had a good reason to not do it. Well, this year we do. Unfortunately, I'd rather not get into the specifics, but suffice it to say that the camel's back has been broken. Anyway, I thought it would be fun to pile all of ours up, pour gasoline all over them, and torch the suckers on Christmas Eve for all the stupid people driving by to see. (They're only stupid because they drive 3 mph down our street at night, with their headlights off, not letting those of us who LIVE on the street get in OR out of our freaking driveways. That's all.) So we'll see if my plans come to fruition or not, but at the very least we lit one up tonight. So that was fun.





We also finally put our Christmas tree up. We actually bought it like a week ago and put it up, but we didn't start decorating it until today. In fact, it's still a little sparse, as far as ornaments go, but we'll probably wait until tomorrow to finish that. Once it's all decked out, I'll see how I feel about putting up a better picture of it.

Well, you see, the thing is...

This is from this past Halloween. I was a werewolf. (It looked a lot better in person.)

Also, I went to Boise last night for a concert, and I just happened to find some Mountain Dew Live Wire, which is the best pop in the world.

And finally, this is some stonework that we did a few months ago. I'll have more of this later.

Viva Piñata and Gears of War

This is freaking hilarious, even if you don't like video games. And it's completely family-friendly.



THIS is an amazing game. By the way, the game actually looks this good.

Halloween-ness

Here are the Jack-o-lanterns we carved this year. I have to say that we're pretty cool.


Here's mine



James's pump-a-kin



Conor's handiwork

Watch these videos

So OK Go is my new favorite band. These videos demonstrate why.

Not so much

So it's pretty much been three weeks since I've updated this. Maybe that's because...oh, who cares, there were lots of reasons. Probably. Anyway, a friend reminded me that I needed to update, so here I am, updating. Although she's basically the only one who reads this (at the moment) so maybe she wants something AMAZING from this blog post. Sorry, babe, probably not gonna happen. Um, so yeah, I guess I've not updated because NOTHING exciting happens to me, at all. Ever. In my life. I don't even play my Xbox that much anymore, which is odd, since I used to consider that my favorite pasttime, next to listening to music and sleeping (not at the same time...well, maybe). Maybe that's because I'm using in advance all the time I'll be devoting to Gears of War once it comes out in about a month. So...yeah.

While I'm in a talkative mood...I just finished a couple AMAZING books. Whoa. Maybe cool things DO happen to me. Vicariously. Nevermind. They're both by a new author named Brandon Sanderson. Elantris was a great, great book. One nice thing is that it was a complete story in just ONE VOLUME. So many fantasy writers think they have to write this huge, epic story that spans ten novels, each 700+ pages. That isn't to say that there's no room for a sequel, because there is. ANYWAY. The novel does use some genre cliches, but they're so well-drawn you don't really notice. Also, the magic system is pretty cool. It's not COMPLETELY original, but what really is these days? Very briefly, it consists of drawing symbols, called Aons, in the air--which leaves a visible trail--adding specific details for localization or specific effects, then touching the center of the symbol to activate the magic. Anyway, there's a lot more to it, so go read it. The other novel is Mistborn. I actually liked Mistborn more than Elantris. The magic system in this book is pretty clever and actually pretty original, too. Called Allomancy, the user ingests trace amounts of different metals in a liquid solution. He then proceeds to "burn" the different metals, each having a different result. For example, Burning tin enhances one's senses, while Burning pewter increases one's strength and speed. There are six other basic metals, with a few others that have interesting effects. Mistborn is a lot more fast-paced than Elantris, which I think is in part due to the quickness with which one can use Allomancy as opposed to Aons. At its roots, Mistborn's story is the same rebellion story told countless times in myriad other works, but the details that flesh out the story are what set it apart and make it especially entertaining.

Wow, that was a lot more than I planned on writing. But it was kind of therapeutic. So maybe next time I'll follow suit. Oh, and I'm going to get some pictures of my job. Maybe some of me actually working. But probably mostly of things I've done. I'm proud of the masonry I've put together. And before you make any jokes about my last name being Mason and the fact that my job is masonry, let me tell you that I've heard them all before. But thanks for trying. Until next time.

A swing and a miss

Man, I suck at golf. But I still go. Why? We decided to go golfing again today after work. Yeah, we had to quit early, but who cares? Especially when your boss and all your coworkers go with you. So it was fun even though I am currently terrible. The ironic thing is that I used to always say that golf is a dumb, pointless sport (and its classification as a sport is still dubious in my mind), but I have actually enjoyed it the last few times I've gone. I mentioned to one of the guys today that if I'm not careful, I'm going to want to go a lot more, which is bad for Mr. Wallet. But we'll see. At the very least I didn't get last out of the five of us. And I actually got par on one of the holes. Hooray for Trevor.

The infamous Idaho Falls windmills...

Sure, they look all nice and innocuous from here, but they're scary as hell at night. I'll prove it to you...later.

Utter Craziness

Speaks for itself, don't you think?


And for no reason at all (actually, these are in place of my flop video from yesterday, which I have yet to acquire), here is a picture and two videos of James exceeding any awesomeness that I will ever acheive. Maybe.


Oh, look. I'm upside down 8 feet off the ground.

I'm gonna die...

So for fun, today I decided to go bridge jumping with some friends from college. We went to a place called Monkey Rock (although I couldn't see any resemblance to ANY kind of primate) that's about 15 miles north of Rexburg. For the most part, I enjoyed myself. I was the only one doing anything fun, likes spins and flips. Although perhaps some people would use the word "stupid." I attempted to do a gainer off the bridge (which was about 25-30 feet above the water) and failed miserably. I got airborne then somehow ended up sideways. Take it from me, hitting the water at that speed is somewhat painful. I felt like someone punched me in the face. So I am now suffering the consequences, which is CONSTANT PAIN EVERYWHERE. Live and don't learn. Because I'll probably try it again, eventually. Oh, I got a video of it, but it's currently elsewhere, so I'll put that up when I retrieve it from the depths.

La primera palabra...

So this is my first post, and I'm not sure what all to say. I've been meaning to get a blog going for a while now, but out of sheer laziness (no, really, I'm quite candid about myself that way) I haven't gotten around to it until now. I had originally thought that I would use this as an outlet for any creative thoughts I had (like THAT is going to happen) and I think I might just do that. I'll probably have some rants here and there on various topics, though I probably won't have all the information I'd like to have. But then again, who ever does? If my blog is boring, too bad. It's my blog, and the internet is a large place; find something better. ANYWAY, here are some pictures to start things off. I graduated from college, then went to Brazil, and then my niece and nephew were running around the house and such. Not necessarily in that order, but you get the idea. Until my next wave of thoughtfulness.


Me and the 'rents



Brother Colvin and I



Sugarloaf Mountain or Pâo de Azucar



Lance is an odd one...



Jacky Boy



Man, look how tan I am



Kinda looks like Jackie O



The kids on Jack's birthday