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.