New Year's Eve 2008!

It’s that time again! Time for everyone to start making promises to and/or setting goals for themselves which will more than likely be broken and/or failed by the end of January. Hooray for New Year’s resolutions!

So what am I hoping to change? First and foremost, I want my wife and myself to join a church here in town and become much more intentional in our relationship with God. Another resolution, of course, is to get into better shape by exercising regularly. The equipment I have is minimal, but I can always visit the TRAC once classes start again. And to help me stay accountable, I shall blog about it occasionally! Still, this is most likely resolution to fail. We’ll see. I also intend to rate each day of this year on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being the crappiest day ever, and 10 being the most awesomest day! And I think it would be fun to take a picture of myself once a day, and then, by the end of the year, create a time-lapse video. While these are decent goals to make and keep, it doesn’t even come close to the ultimate sacrifice.

Though many of you may not believe it, I have less than one case of Mt. Dew left. After this case is gone, I will start drinking… *sigh*… diet soda. I can only imagine the looks on the faces of Maeda Sensei, Sean, Katie, Mat and Jae. Maeda Sensei is probably hopeful I can follow through with it!

God help me.

Right, so you know what my resolutions are… what are some of yours? I’d love to hear…

Until next time,
N.

Christmas 2008!

Indeed, Christmas 2008 has come and gone in our small town. I pray everyone had a wonderful holiday and that all continues to go well. For those of us in Central Illinois, it was a progressively chilly day that all began when…

*do-do-do-doooo do-DUM-duh-dooo* My eyes instantly opened. I thought and pondered for a moment… my alarm was sounding. Why? I pondered some more, and asked myself: “What day is it?” My eyes got as big as saucers when I realized IT WAS CHRISTMAS! I rolled over to see my wife sleeping soundly. Crap. I closed my eyes for a couple more hours.

Once my wife and I woke up, it was time to open the gifts from my family who were in Seattle. Thanks to Josh, my best friend since childhood, I am now the proud owner of everything Strong Bad—except for clothes. Every SBE-mail, teen girl squad, and Limozeen music video is sitting nicely in DVD form on my shrine to Strongbadia. Okay fine, so it’s really in my DVD’s-to-watch stack under my bed. Katie Salter, you may envy me now. :D

After opening the goodies from home, my wife’s parents, my wife and I all got ready to head over to my wife’s cousin’s house for Christmas dinner. It was a wonderful event with turkey, coleslaw, and mashed potatoes with an ocean of gravy… but the ultimate food offered were my mother-in-law’s amazing green bean bundles! Imagine, if you will, a pot full of whole green beans simmering on the stove. Now, take about 5 or 6 individual beans, and wrap a nice, thick strip of bacon around it. Put the bundles in a 13 by 9 casserole dish, sprinkle some minced garlic on each bundle, and toss it the oven long enough to cook the bacon. Once they’re done cooking and cooled off a bit, imagine all of the different, delectable tastes in your mouth as you slowly bite down into the bundle of awesomeness. There’s a bit more to it than this, and they are terrible for you… but it’s still so worth it!

After dinner, we all talked for awhile, watched my “movie” of “WFV 2008,” then talked some more. At around 3pm, we all headed back home with grandmother to rendezvous with my brother-in-law and his wife for another round of opening presents. Here’s an amusing anecdote for you:

About a week or two ago, our good friend Melody came to stay with us. She brought along one of our favorite board games called “Rummikub.” Well, she left her copy with us, as she was leaving the area to visit with her family in California during the holidays. Now, my brother-in-law and his wife got home before us. While separating the presents into piles, I saw my brother-in-law tilt one present in particular to one side and intently listened to the sound it made—rather suspicious behavior, eh? A couple minutes later, I picked up a package for Lori and me. While moving it, I heard a very familiar sound as well.

Brett opened up his package first, and whaddaya know… it was RUMMIKUB! When Lori and I opened our copy, the whole family burst into laughter. It was then that Brett admitted that he was upset when he saw Melody’s copy, mistakenly believing it was ours after being told by his mother that he should get it for us. He was relieved to find out just whose copy that was.

That’s about it, for the most part. Over the past couple of days, we have all struggled to find places to store our new gifts; thus, the house still isn’t near as tidy as it was prior to Christmas I’m afraid. We’ll get there one of these days.

I hope everyone out there had a fun and safe holiday! Take care of yourselves and I shall write again soon!

Until next time,
~N.

Black Friday and Mr. Snow

Thanksgiving came and went as family members returned to their respective homes to resume their lives – and just in the nick of time, too! Entre: Black Friday weekend and our good friend Mr. Snow.

Realizing just how insane shoppers would be, my wife adamantly refused to go shopping despite her “desperate” need for some new jeans. I found myself willing to tolerate her occasional mild to moderate vocalizations for new clothes for a few days longer and agreeing that shopping, at least on Friday, was out of the question.

Saturday, well, happened… there’s nothing new to report there. But Sunday was the day for the family to do some good ol’ fashioned shoppin’! Truth be told, the traffic wasn’t near as bad as I had expected it to be. Our first stop at Sam’s Club proved to be rather productive; we got enough Kleenex to last us the rest of the winter, that’s for darn sure, which is good for when the cold season comes around again—we’ll be prepared!

I was tremendously worried about our second stop: White Oaks Mall. Surely, as it’s the only mall in Springfield, it would be crammed with families scrounging for last minute deals on crap they want, but don't not need. Speaking of…this is where my personal dilemma lies.

I don’t know precisely how long it’s been, but around 2 weeks ago, I misplaced my headphones. They were the Sony headphones that went on top of your head, but inside your ear. This is especially helpful when going on jogs. They set me back about 15 to 20 bucks. So what’s the problem? Why don’t I just go out and get the same pair? WELL! My birthday was recently celebrated, and I ended up getting quite a bit of cash. This is the perfect opportunity to get the headphones I’ve always wanted: Bose around-ear headphones. Not the QC2’s: they’re much too expensive, but the basic around ear headphones from Bose. I can purchase this particular item and still have well over a hundred bucks left in my birthday fund. So what do I do? What should I do?

The electronics section of Sears was searched with no luck finding even a decent Sony pair. Our last stop, Target, had both. Crap. So what the heck was I to do? Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to make that decision. So throughout the rest of the trip, the stop in Meijer and the long drive back, I could only wonder.

So what should I do? I leave this question to those who took the time to read this. The sale on the “dream pair” ends on January 2nd, but I am looking to get them prior to Christmas, if ever. Screw it. I’ll give you guys until Thursday, the 11th. Hopefully at least one of you out there will respond. It would be greatly appreciated!

Black Friday weekend went fairly well for my family. I am curious: how was yours? Let me know, I’d love to hear!

Until next time…
~ N.