Reflections of the Weekend Past

In six parts

1. Special Birthday
My great-grandmother turns 99 YEARS OLD today!!! Happy Birthday Granny!!! That's an amazing accomplishment and equally amazing that I still have a great grandmother alive while I have just turned 30!

2. Iowa
Went to Cedar Rapids to hang with the girlfriend and parental units. We had a great weekend enjoying the lights of Iowa City (one had a couple hundred Santas, the other had lights synced to music... BOTH were well done), the snow/ice of Saturday (ok, that wasn't so enjoyable), and the company of family! The weather conditions did limit the crowds at the outlet mall in Williamsburg on Sunday which was fine by me!

3. Weather
The snow I can handle... the ice that coated pretty much most of Iowa and southern Minnesota was a pain in the butt. The roads were ok yesterday driving home, some blowing snow between Waterloo and Spring Valley on Hwy 63, but otherwise it was tolerable. What was NOT tolerable was falling on the ice on my driveway on the way to get the mail upon my return. I laid there on my back for about a minute, part to estimate the damage done to my aging body (I decided I could wiggle everything with only a little pain so nothing was broken other than my pride), but also part to develop a strategy to stand up and return to the safe zone of my garage. The strategy was to roll in circles till I could use the snow I just shoveled out of the way of my garage as traction for my shitty shoes. It worked, but I remain pretty sore as of this morning.

4. College Football
What a joke of a season that ends up with LSU (2 losses) and Ohio State (shitty conference) ending up in the National Title Game. I don't feel either team is playing the best right now (the only regularly followed sport that doesn't reward the teams who are playing well at the end of the season) and am kind of surprised that Illinois is in the BCS, while Missouri who was #1 as of Saturday afternoon, is NOT! Note that Missouri beat BOTH Illinois (week 1) and Kansas (last weekend) this season. Will anyone actually watch LSU vs OSU? Will anyone watching actually care who wins? Undefeated Hawaii gets no BCS bowl even though their conference was probably just as tough as the Big 10 this past year.

5. Holiday Shopping
I have been receiving 2x the emails of "specials" from my regular subscriptions - and about 4x the junk mail catalogs. Thankfully I have a large recycling tote that is on the way into my house so the stuff never even makes it through the door! But I have read (and heard from folks) that the Wii is yet again becoming hard to find for the Holidays..... glad I have mine!

6. Wii
Speaking of Wii - both Super Mario Brothers 3 (think of the flying Mario with the Raccoon tail) as well as Double Dribble (with the extreme close up slow motion of the dunks) are out for the Virtual Console. Yet another 2 reasons I don't have a desire to leave the house now! Still waiting on Contra (greatest game ever) and Blades of Steel (with fighting goodness) and then I'll be a little more content with the selections!!

Haiku of the Day
Snow and ice falling
Making travel a pain now
THANK YOU FOUR WHEEL DRIVE!!!

Entertainment of the Day - I watched License to Wed last week that was a movie I hadn't heard of till it was out on DVD. Robin Williams, Mandy Moore, the guy who plays Jim on The Office, and about half of the rest of the crew from The Office. Pretty funny movie actually. Check it out if you need a good laugh.

Weblink of the Day - To stimulate your brains this morning (when you all probably want to go back to sleep), try clicking on the color of the word (not the color spelled out in the word) on the options at the bottom of the screen. Gets faster and faster as you go - don't blink!!! Song is pretty annoying so you may want to turn down the volume!!