up, up and awayin my beautiful balloon

my niece was kind enough to give my girls a copy of the movie UP (disney/pixar) for christmas. they'd already seen it, carrie and i had not.

the advance previews were cute, but left us with an expectation of the movie which was, in a word, wrong.

in this case, that was ok. don't get me wrong, but the movie had its cute and funny parts, particularly dug and alpha (the dogs), but the story itself was the real charm. it was sensitive, moving, charming, funny, sad, illuminating, bitter and sweet all in one package.

i don't mind admitting being moved to tears at more than one occasion in the movie.

it was, in short, that good. if you haven't seen it, see it. if you have, see it again.

and again.

i'm dreaming of a white. . .whenever

it finally snowed today. took me two-and-a-half hours to drive home. . .usually takes 20 minutes in the evening. for you mathematicians, that's 7.5 times the normal commute time.

my reward came when i got home. my daughter was out on the driveway ready to play in the snow. . .at 8:00 p.m. she even wanted to shovel the sidewalks. my nine-year-old!

and the other reward? just look at the house. made the drive worth the postcard from home.

kids. . .can't live with 'em,can't ship them offto the north poleto be santa's slaves

this is what you see. . .

this is what they are really thinking. . .

the kids were feeling guiltyabout shaking all those presentsall morning long just to guess what was inside each one. . .

our fifth annual inducteeinto the boredstiffgeekshall of fame

another example of someone

with too much time on his hands

thank you for callingtechnical support. . .part deux

too funny. may be 2 years old, but gets funnier every time.

i can't believe we fit the whole thing

a week ago, our family went out on a very cold day. . .30 degrees and windy, but thankfully, no snow or rain.

we found this tree farm near our home which was selling these incredible noble firs, and so we cut one down, strapped it to the roof of our car, and drove it home. . .

. . .slowly, for it is a big tree, and we don't have a truck.

anyway, my wife's eyes were bigger than the room. she thought we had 10-foot ceilings. . .turned out to be 9-foot ceilings. once we got the tree in, we had to lop off a foot of the tree trunk. . .

inside the house. . .

with a circular saw.

sawdust. everywhere. so much that our vacuum cleaner clogged up and i had to install a new bag.

i digress.

so here we are, with a completely decorated christmas tree for our first christmas in our new house. i can't believe it's christmas already. six months have gone by so quickly.

i hope you like our humble tree.

may the blessings of the holiday be upon you in all abundance, whether you celebrate christmas, chanukkah, kwanzaa, or any other holiday. (we do strive (tongue firmly planted in cheek) for some degree of political correctness. hahaha.)

merry christmas to all, and to all a good night.

thought for the day

another balmy day in paradise, part deux

it was 14 degrees on my front porch this morning.

where's the 102 when we need it?

igoogle.com

it's beginning to look a lot like. . .whoops!

good news is that i truly outdid myself this year with my christmas decorations. the bad news is that i had to take them down after two days.

i had more people come screaming up to my house than ever. great stories. but two things made me take them down.

first, the police advised me that they would cause traffic accidents as drivers almost wrecked when they drove by.

second, a 55-year-old lady who grabbed the 75-pound ladder almost killed herself putting it against my house. she didn't realize the man on the gutter was fake until she climbed to the top--she was not happy.

she was one of many people who attempted a rescue.

my yard couldn't take it either. i have more than a few tire tracks where people drove into my yard.

--author unknown--