Yahoo's Christmas Present

Today I received my Christmas present from Yahoo! and am quite pleased.

They sent me a high-end wine opener with assorted tools in a handsome black leather case. It looks great.

After Google's Xmas gift blew my Motherboard, I sure could use some wine.

Thanks Yahoo!

Google's Christmas Gift

This year I received a Christmas gift from Google -- it was a digital picture frame, which they consider a good gift for me, after my company has spent about $130,000 advertising with them.
Actually, I liked the gift too until it blew up my computer. Evidently, this Chinese-made piece of artwork doesn't have a good way to separate electrical currents inside of it, which spelled big trouble for me.

Here's how it shook out for me:
1) I loaded images
2) half of the images were broken, so I plugged the frame back into my computer to fix the images
3) After being satisfied with the images, I put the batteries into the frame to let it run continuously
4) the batteries started to go dry within ten minutes, so I plugged the frame into the wall with the power cord that came with the frame.
5) more images corrupted in the frame, so I plugged the data/USB cord into my computer (forgetting the frame was also plugged into the wall)

6) MY COMPUTER BLACKED OUT AND WOULD NOT RESTART immediately upon inserting the USB cord into my machine.

Now, $600 in repair bills and a week without my computer, I am starting to not like Google's idea for a Christmas gift.

Bah Humbug!

That Xmas Tree is Pimpin'

On our return trip from Iowa, Hambone and I listened to DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince on the Ipod for several hours in a row. One of the songs was called "Pimpin" and it gave detailed descriptions about what is and is NOT pimpin'.

For instance, white socks with black shoes is NOT PIMPIN'

When we decorated our Christmas tree this weekend, Hambone suggested we put my furry purple pimp hat on top of the tree instead of the traditional star or snowflake topper.

After he had adjusted the hat on top of the tree, he stepped back and delared it PIMPIN'.

Gettin' Midwest on those Nachos

In Mid-November, Hambone and I made our annual trip to Iowa, stopping for a visit with some family in Indiana. We watched an IU/UofM game in the stands, where we discovered that they they don't serve any alcohol. :-(

However, after the game we all went to Macri's for a hearty meal. My brothers were very interested to get our take on the nachos there, since we are the self-declared Nacho Connoisseurs.

I'd say those nachos were a 8 of 10. Part of it was that I was RAVENOUS by the time I got them, but to Macri's credit, the chips were fresh and they used real cheese. I deducted two points for using canned Jalapenos, but other than that they were very good.

It was great to see family again, and in Iowa (the next leg of the journey) we were able to catch most of Hambone's siblings too.

Here's what we learned on the trip overall, though: We added up the hours spent driving and it turned out to be 44 total. The trip lasted just over 4 days. That's a lot of driving. From now on we FLY!