Christmas in Reno

This year we are spending the Christmas vacation in Reno Nevada with The Wife's parents and BIL.

Sadly, yet again we have another green Christmas. What awful luck we have! In 2004 we spent Christmas in Waterloo and managed to experience a record breaking heat wave in December. In 2005, it snowed in Waterloo and in Reno, but we had decided to spend Christmas in Prince George - which happened to be the first green Christmas in living history (i.e. the past 25 years). This year, it snowed in Waterloo, it snowed in Prince George, but Reno got a pass.

No luck yet again.

Aside from the lack of the white fluffiness, we've had generally good times. On Tuesday night, we watched the mountain a little ways from here burn in a brush fire. The hillside was ablaze in small red flames, which looked really cool against the evening sky. Alas, it stopped just short of the Walmart (apparently coming right up to the parking lot, but going no further than that). The night previous, BIL and I went for a midnight "walk" up the side of the backyard volcano. I was a little concerned about coytoes, rattlesnakes and scorpions, but all for not. The real danger was to be found in tiny rocks - which BIL slipped on - spraining his ankle. He didn't lose the ability to walk until after he discovered that it was sprained, which, fortunately, was only after we got back down the mountain and inside of the house.

The only other major notable that we've had so far was the lack of any boxing day (or "Day after Christmas" as they so creatively call it down here) sales at the local mall. This is the first Boxing day in about 9 years where I haven't lined up outside of some mall in the freezing cold to go shopping at a hideous hour of the morning (2004 exempted as I was selling stuff to the people that lined up outside of some mall in the freezing cold to go shopping at a hideous hour of the morning). Not only were there no sales, but there were no people to go to the sales either. It seems that the day after Christmas is not actually a holiday here, so most people were back to work as normal. Strange. I don't think that I could recover from the turkey-induced tryptophan hangover after just a single day.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (To look in my window...)

Apparently if you add NorthPole@live.com to your MSN list, you can talk with Santa!! I chatted with him earlier today, and I am pretty sure that Santa is either a poorly designed computer program, or a scary, scary fat man that watches me at night. I'll let you decide.

Grib says:
do you like rum and eggnog?
Santa Claus says:
I'm not interested in drinking.
Grib says:
you don't drink? What about that red nose of yours?
Santa Claus says:
His nose is still bright red! That's how I see my way to your house at night.
Grib says:
you come to my house at night?
You don't look in the windows, do you? That's kind of creepy.
Santa Claus says:
I'll be flying your way Christmas Eve!
Grib says:
are you watching me now?
Santa Claus says:
Sorry, Grib, it's a secret.

Why I don't have TV

TiVo released the results from a survey they conducted to determine the Top 10 most memorable moments in TV for 2006. Looking at what the top 10 most memorable moments actually were, I feel renewed in my decision to not have a TV for 2007.

Top TV Moments of 2006 Survey Results
Rank
1 Katie Couric's last day on "Today"
2 Mel Gibson's interview with Diane Sawyer after his DWI arrest
3 Oprah tells author James Frey he betrayed readers
4 Sara and Grissom get together on "CSI"
5 Faith Hill's reaction to Carrie Underwood's win at "CMA Awards"
6 Kirstie Alley's bikini reveal on "Oprah"
7 "Will & Grace" series finale in which their kids start dating
8 Kate and Sawyer get together on "Lost"
9 Rosie O'Donnell's debut on "The View"
10 Connie Chung attempting a sultry serenade of Maury Povich

Full details can be found here: http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061214/sfth005.html?.v=79

Christmas Cards are too complicated

Christmas Cards are self inflicted guilt torture.

Each year, I write up my big list-o-people-that-I-once-met-in-a-bar-or-something and *swear* that EACH and EVERY person on the list will get a card delivered promptly in time for the Holidays.

Yeah. That's never happened.