ADVENTure Wrap up - Coming Soon

Somehow I always decide to post one of these when I have no time, but give me 3 days off and I do nothing. Go figure. This is a quick one, as we have week 2 of vacation camp going on this week at work, and I have to gets pretty soon, but just wanted all my loyal followers know that I have not given up on ADVENTure, far from it. It went very well, and its wrap up shall be posted. I actually have most of it written up and ready to go, but I just need to take photos of everything and plug them in.

Christmas was good. Becca and I hosted for the first time and had her brother, Dad, and their dog up for the day. Things went off without a hitch, the food was good, drinking was done, and many games were played (well, several anyways - Dog, Zombie Fluxx, and Metro. Power Grid was attempted, but we forgot how much prep and setup was involved and opted for something else instead). We watched a couple christmas specials and called it a day.

All in all a very good weekend. will have the ADVENTure wrap up soon.

ADVENTure Day 15 & 16: Looking Good

Well hello! It ends up that I can open my ADVENTure gifts without Becca being here, and on top of it, she even claims its ok! So what have we in store?

Day 15
It really seems to be all about timing, because when I need something, ADVENTure provides. Be it food, drink, batteries. Yesterday I was in need of something to wear so I would not be at work looking uncivilized with no shirt, and yet what do I find in my giant box under the tree...
A new sweater. A good fit too, showing off all my quality assets in just the right way to make it look like I have arms and such.

Day 16
I've always liked the Carl Sagen approach to things ever since I saw Contact, which is when you only really need one of something to get by, why not get two? And this applies to most things in life, be it pants or gigantic gyroscopic space and time travel devices.
Now, you may think that new underware is not as exciting as gigantic gyroscopic space and time travel devices (its not), you have to admit that the penguins in sunglasses look a lot more awesome than the guy from Picket Fences who gets blown up by the religious zelot in Contact. well, before anyways.

In other news, I played Paranoia last night for the first time, and it is awesome and needs to be played again. Theres also a possiblity that Becca and I will be doing Christmas at our place, so that means we will need to deck the halls to all levels of holiday gaudiness - more on both of these later.

ADVENTure Day 10-14: Eating and drinking, socked out, and Powered up

Recently I have been called out for sucking at keeping up with the daily ADVENTure by the international community, by which I mean Luke Milton, who has done the opposite of me and has managed to stay on top of his ADVENTure, as well as sprawl into new territory by reviewing holidays specials as well. Jerk.

Day 10
The scary thing you find when you don't do this daily like you are supposed to is that you start to forget what came when. As you recall, I have started to see a pattern in my daily gifts - food. The 10th day was no different, and is a favorite:
a repeat? Yes, but we knew that the rest of the bag would be finding its way to my belly sooner or later.

Day 11
now this is something new this ADVENTure and just in time too:

Neither of us has done laundry in quite a while, so this seems to be timed perfectly, and I like smartwool socks.

Day 12
another repeater this day, and while we currently do not need it like last time round, I am looking forward to getting to use it:

Day 13
This one was a surprise, and I really don't know what to say on it

Does this mean something deeper in the box will need these? should I use them up now, or should I save them for the future? Can they be used in Day 14's gift....

Day 14


No, but I will eat these as well in good time.

Becca left to go to Connecticut last night for a few days, so I am not certain of the rules and by-laws that dictate ADVENTure, and am not sure if I can open without her being here (wanted to say "present" but it would create this awesome double meaning that would blow your mind, but I need you continuing to read this), but know this friend - THEY WILL BE OPENED

Making Something Special

Last May you should recall that Becca and myself, as well as the international community (mainly consisting of New Jersey and Western Australia) celebrated the greatest and newest fake holiday known as Lowemannzeit. With this, Becca and I spent time making a short stop-motion animated holiday special known as The Legend of the Norgenchewer, which can be seen here:



With Christmas coming, we've been watching some older holiday specials, including He Man/She Ra, Pee Wee Herman, and John Denver and the Muppets, and have been following friends blogs who have been watching and talking about them as well. This leaves me with a solid conclusion that I must make another holiday special.

So this leads us to the question, what kind of holiday special should I make, let alone for what holiday? Should it be another stop-motion? Should it be full of friends and guests singing and dancing like you'd find in a Bob Hope special? should it be bizarre, long, and depressing much akin to the Star Wars holiday Special? I need your thoughts.

Also, if I am to take this course of action, I may need your help. Are you up for the challenge? or will I be doing it all on my own, and by on my own, I mean Becca will be doing it too. What say you friend, all 18 of you?
This could be you and your excitement to be a part of something you might regret for the rest of your life.

ADVENTure Day 8 & 9: Gorging Myself

Yesterday was a very slow moving long day full of snow that produced nothing much. But thats not what you want to hear at the moment...its ADVENTure you need!

Day 8
Now, you may not have noticed but bread is good. Also, another wonderful thing in the world is beer. This is why having beer with sandwiches or french toast is a great idea. but the amount of work and effort it requires to drink AND eat at the same time can be too much. Enter Day 8...
Day 9
Yesterday had not much time for contemplation of what I received because we opened early and I was out the door and into the snow. this is actually very similar to how every morning starts for me - up and out the door, and in turn I don't really remember to bring anything aside from coffee. In turn, I've become very good at not eating during the day, but some times that just doesn't cut it and I have to break down and get something to eat. Knowing this, becca pickd up a gift card to a place that I tend to frequent due to its closeness to work.

All in all, I'm starting to notice a trend. Its almost as if she is trying to fatten me up...but for what? Better hide the knives.

ADVENTure Day 7: Looking good while I sleep

Day seven has come and gone, and we are on the verge of day eight, waiting for Becca to wake up, but she better hurry because I needs to gets.

Last night was an ill night for sleep due to a small 18 pound furry feline named Elwyn
Do not let him fool you, he is vicious and cruel. This morning at 3:38am he decided it would be best to come in to the bedroom, purring up a storm and start pawing my face and eating my beard. Naturally, I push him aside and try to continue to sleep. However he is persistent and this continues until he gets bored and will leave. This time, he chose to walk across the night stand, knocking over the lamp, shattering the light bulb all over the floor. Awesome morning.

But Wait! All is not lost, because my sleep was had with my magical ADVENTure day 7 gift - pajama pants

These ergonomically designed sleep attire are the next best thing to a dressing gown for comfort. These are the pants that you want to go to work in because you feel amazingly professional in them and know that they will further your career just by having them. That is why when I was unemployed I would wear my current pair every day to keep me focused and on track with the job hunting.

Day 8 to come soon. The cat, by the way, is currently sleeping on top of my arms between me and the laptop as I type. that is a total of about 7 inches of space. I'm pretty certain my arms and hands are asleep because I don't even know if I am typing this.

ADVENTure Day 4, 5, 6: The Return of Hope

I want to say that the last few days have been busy and I have not had time, but we all know that would be a lie. What has the last few days brought us in the realm of ADVENTure? Its been very much like the Epic and critically acclaimed film Conan the Barbarian, minus the sex slaves.

Day 4
In recent times, a precious heirloom was stolen from me by the hands of a dendrological smack talking red head that was in the form of a black giraffe bead that was entrusted to me by the mythical Bead King (surprisingly, this is actually true). Hope has been lost and has yet to be restored to me, but I take comfort in knowing that I have this malicious gingers travel coffee mug as a ransom until this treasure is returned to me.
Becca decided to try and speed up the process by giving me a new travel mug of my own in a similiar design so I might actually give the other one back. This is your chance Adams, don't dwell on it.

Day 5
In times not too dissimilar from now, I have been fighting an ongoing war within. It takes the form of plaque and gingervitus, and other hideous blights that has chosen my mouth as its battlefield. The weapons of this war have served me well, but alas, wars toll has been taken on them, just look at how it stands:
Yet, at the dawn of yesterday, a turn in the battle with the morning light - a new toothbrush has been gifted upon me
But whats this? Its not alone!!
Unfortunately for them, the proper feats had been taken to dual-weild, and no penalty shall be had this day. Roll for initiative and be damned.

Day 6
The battle rages on, yet today in the form of hunger. While I have been classically trained in the arts of not eating, this cankerous need still fights its way in once in a great while. And yet, ADVENTure provides to fight this ill-bitch by punching it in the face with this
Its like it is four almost-individually wrapped sticks of peanut butter dynamite to explode it into nothingness. Thats right hunger, your getting the middle finger in the form of alternating layers of peanut butter and wafers covered in chocolate times four today.

In other news, Becca left for a frisbee tournament at 5 this morning, so I've been up and bored. I did watch Empire Records though, so I got that going for me.

Damn the man, save the Empire

ADVENTure Day 3: Good Eats

Long day and it was all out of sorts, but Becca came to work with me today to work with 3-year olds, so that was good for her, and thats the magic number for the day.

Not only is it Day 3 of glorious ADVENTure, but its also December 3rd, which Would be our 3 month anniversary had we gotten married in September instead of October. Its also how many gifts I got today

I got not one, not two, but thre Reese's peanut butter cups today, which is great because I really enjoy eating these. Now, if they were the christmas ones instead of the traditional everyman peanut butter cup, I would probably not eat them. I'm not secularist towards chocolatey treats that specifically celebrate a certain time of year due to their beliefs. I just believe that they are not good because they choose to look like trees. It may not be the most flashiest of gifts received or to come, but its much better than some of the filler gifts I have in store for Becca. Whats exciting to think about though that that there is an entire bag of these lurking about in the house that I must now find and exterminate.

Huzzah.

ADVENTure Day 2: Drink of Life

Twice in a day, I must be awesome...why yes I am.

Today is the second day of the radical and bodacious ADVENTure, an event that makes Lumpy wish he was Christian so he wouldn't have to celebrate Life Day by watching Jefferson Starship. Now, I know that you have all been waiting to find out what I possibly could have gotten today since the nail-biting reveal this morning of what I opened yesterday (some sexy fish-themed underware for the lazy who hadn't read up yet). As we all know the second day could very well be a game changer...will it keep in theme with male lingerie and/or fish, or will it go in a completely different direction?

COFFEE!!! A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIRECTION AND JUST IN TIME TOO!!!!

As it so happens, we ran out of coffee Monday, and realised it yesterday. Fortunately for me, Becca had visited mystical southern Connecticut recently, and had stolen this treat from local Peruvian inuits who have learned the art of french roasting. God bless those who steal to give to me.

Still curious as to what I have been giving Becca? So are many others - harass her until she makes a blog to share. And stay tuned to see what other lies I tell in regards to the gifts I get.

ADVENTure Day 1: The ADVENTure box and the first gift

Off to a great start by being late on the first day, so lets get going.

Last year I made Becca an elaborate ADVENTure box that was sealed off to the real world and contained nothing but joyful and magic and christmas cheer, that required you to pierce into it with a sharp knife and cut out your daily gift. This year Becca box is looking a bit lame, so I will have to fix that, but the box that she made for me...Oh boy.

What Becca has done is individually wrapped 24 gifts, and then tethered them to ribbons attached to numbered tags for the days of Advent. Every morning I get to pull out the number tab and follow the ribbon to my joyous gift. Its pretty intense looking inside the box right now.

So, when I pull out the first days gift, this is what I find at the other end of the line:

What can it possibly be? golf clubs? video game? another cat?
No, Its underware! But the are covered in the remains of a thousand dead fish, in celebration of the upcoming Dead Fish Run, so it makes it that much more awesome.

So what did I get Becca? Well, she doesn't have a blog or anything yet, but she was saying she is going to start one to share what she's getting. I'd suggest friending her on Facebook and telling her she needs to start one, even give her suggestions on what to call it. or just post your harrassment here in the comments and I'll make sure to tell her.

And so we return, as it begins

Hi all.

Just about to set off on at least a 25 day blogging spree, as both Becca and I are taking part in ADVENTure this year, which is going to be awesome. Wait, whats that? you don't know what ADVENTure is? But...what?

The short of it is ADVENTure is the 24 days leading up to Christmas, and in turn you make your own Advent calendar for someone else. And if you're lucky, someone will make one for you. While this will be my first year on the recieving end of it, last year was the kick off inaugeral event, where I totally stole the idea from friends Luke and Suzanne (shh...they may not know)

So what have I been doing since Lowemannzeit? Well, camp came and went, and that was good, only minor issues here and there. Becca and I got married, and you can read about it at Together Without A Map or you can look at photos from our photographer (gallery is "Becca & Michael", password is beccaandmichael if it works). Then we went on an awesome honeymoon to Oregon and Washington, where we stayed in a treehouse, saw the redwoods, went horseback riding, explored Seattle, took part in an adventure race, and had a birthday! We came home two weeks later, and almost immediately fans were hit. Becca got the call from the state, and she had been laid off (the day we got back mind you) and then yesterday her bike was stolen (which was a wedding gift from me to her, and was just paid off the day before)

Thats short of it. Some other stuff happened in there as well, including starting a daily photo blog, A Step Ahead of the Composition. Becca got me a killer camera as a wedding gift, so been trying to make use of that as often as I can. Also, after taking part in the adventure race on the honeymoon, decided that I wanted to run one here, and thus, the Dead Fish Run has been born. But thats to come, so we'll leave that as it is for now. But the Dead Fish Run is coming, tell your friends.

So yeah, thats about it. Pimped five blogs, three of which are my own, not too bad. ADVENTure coverage should be coming this afternoon/evening, but wanted to get something out there while I'm thinking about it.

A Mighty Post-Norgen To You Good Sir

Two months? Damn.

Lowemannzeit was this past weekend and it was quite a great day. The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing, and the drinks were a flowing. We got some ground to cover, so lets get started with the beginning of last week.

Monday
Lowemadness begins. In preparation for the big day, we needed to work with the International Lowemannzeit Preservation Foundation, or ILPF, in preserving and educating the populous about the joy and wonder that is Lowe. So, a trip out of the offices to our testing ground known simply as "East Sugarballs", we recorded several PSA/How-to videos. They are as follows:







Tuesday
All the Information in the world pertaining to Lowemannzeit is complied into its new official home at Wikimannzeit. This is done on a whim so the ILPF can keep track of what they are talking about.

Wednesday
Wikimannzeit goes live, much to the amazement of everyone thinking that it took many panestaking days and hours for it to look that good. ....yes, yes it did (Quiet Milton)

Thursday
Nothing really happened today, I was pretty busy at work.

Friday
With one more day to Lowemannzeit, everyone is giddy and nothing is getting accomplished. Work is dragging and its almost time to go, but not quite yet. Becca and I are hosting a Norgen Eve portal party since everyone is going to be elsewhere for Lowemannzeit. So, come 5:45 (issues at work caused our 5:00 prep time to be delayed) we are rushing from work to try to get to the costume shop so I can get a Abraham Lincoln hat so I could go as Cyber Lincoln, but they closed 3 minutes before we got there and would not open for us, no matter how much we begged and explained the mysteries of the Norgenchewer (we didn't). So we rushed home to get to the grocery and liquor stores to get supplies for the evening.

So, now that we were fully stocked and making up drinks as we went along (like the El Lowemannero - Tequila and Grenadine with an umbrella) it was time to celebrate properly

Pretty much people came, we drank, we ate, built the portal, and we exchanged gifts. The following are some photographic evidence to chronicle our journey:

Here's Becca in her Lowemannzeit finery, wearing pink fishnets to match.

This is me, wearing my uniform from the 4th Norgen War in Hawaii. You can tell whose side I was on by the color of the lay.

The Viking who showed up to drink and break everything with his own Norgensword. Click it to see the madness in his eyes as he prepares to pillage the woman. The blood will not come out of the couch.

This is our Norgenbait, it has been wrapped in bacon for three days.

This is the cat, infiltrating the present portal. My thoughts towards this is that the cat is taking part in the Norgen pagent, playing the part of the Norgenchewer. No one had it in them to tell him that the pagent was cancelled due to our lack of small children who could remember all their lines.
This is Johnny Depp wearing a viking helmet. Not much else going on here.

And yeah, that is about it. Wonderful time, and now eagerly awaiting next year. Heres to looking for something to fill the void.

to the dads of kids 6-14, i'm sorry

right now I am waiting for my teen afterschool program at the local imax so i can give them their tickets, but they are running late (by like25 minutes, not impressed). but as i am waiting here I get to see all of the young kids who have been waiting for this day like they would for the norginchewer at lowemannzeit, and the one consistent thing I have noticed today is that everyone who is coming with parents, its 95% dads who are here. I'd like to know how that happened.

I am of course talking about opening day for the hannah montana movie.

having only 3 tv channels on a good day, I have been subjected to watching it on saturday mornings from time to time, and while it is not the worst show out there for kids (thats so raven and suite life of zach and cody however, are) its not really that great by kids standards. So how come its so great and how come dad has to take everyone? If this is the way of things to come when I have kids, I am really hoping that their mom takes them to see rambo 8, cause I would not wanting them to miss out on good parts of their childhood.

well, thats not true, I work with kids who have seen all the saw movies in one sitting and can repeat them verbatum and that is scarry. I guess the moral of the story is I don't like pop culture for kids today, and they should all listen to NPR.

The Script Frenzy NWWBW Challenge

Suzanne told me (as well as everyone else) about Script Frenzy over at the NWWBW boards and has been rallying everyone to get with the program and do it, and I think I am going to try (and hopefully do better than my 5 word NaNoWriMo masterpiece).

Script Frenzy in a nutshell is that you have 30 days (April 1-30) to write a 100 page script, be it a screen play, graphic novel, tv show, or something else. With at least 5 or 6 people on board at NWWBW, it seems like a pretty good idea to at least try, though I have to be honest with you - going in, I have no plan. My approach will be simple though; be rediculous. I have no notions that my writing is amazing, and I have no intentions of being intentionally deep and/or metaphorical, but rediculous and stupid I can do, maybe even be entertaining in the process (at least to myself while its being written). It'll be a good challenge to do personally, even if it is just to find out I don't want to do it again.

If you think you are going to do it, head on over to NWWBW and talk about it. Thats all I got for now, just felt the need to share.

Being Busy is a Busy Thing

Its been almost 3 weeks now with a job, and its a crazy thing going from having absolutely nothing to do to not having enough time to do it all in. I'm not complaining, but I'm just saying.

So you know, I took a job at a local Y as the after school and camp director. Its a bit of a change for me since my last job (where I was the camping and youth services director) it was about 85% all about camp, 15% youth enrichment programs (like sports, drawing, painting, and rocketry classes) with support by proxy to the after school program as needed. The new job is about 80% after school programs and 20% camp, so its a drastically different game now that I'm thinking about it, but its been very good. a good working environment, with new responsibilities and a great working dynamic, whats not to love? perhaps what I need to clean up.

The previous guy left back in January, and the position was filled by an interim who did exactly as she was trained to, but the problem was that the old guy trained her to do just the daily stuff, not the billing, not the grant work, not the payroll, etc. Basically all the administrative bits that keep the program going, so I've been working nonstop to try and sort it all out. And I'm happy to say that for the most part, its all sorted out, so now I can actually focus on getting the program better. or getting camp off the ground. Did I mention how there is nothing done for camp yet?

Typically promotion and registration, etc for camp would have started in January. I do not even have a location for the camp to be housed in. Looks like there is a bit more work to go. Again, don't think I'm complaining, because I'm not (venting maybe? don't know, but definitely not complaining). I love this sort of stuff, fixing the chaos. I also knew going in it was going to take some time to get things running how they should.

Oh, also, I finally got an xbox 360 to play in all my spare time. Oh the irony. Been trying to get on it for at least a little bit each day, and a friend loaned me a bunch of games to get me going, but I need to pick up a few new games to play, maybe something that doesn't involve me physically ducking and diving out of the way due to sniper fire like I do with COD4 or absolutely paranoid to whats around the corner and screaming like a girl when something comes out of the dark I wasn't expecting in Bioshock. is there a coloring game maybe? microsoft paint 360? lego games are a must, and will be acquired soon.

Every day is a great day

What I've been watching

Today marks the 6 month"anniversary" of being laid off, which is pretty amazing to me because it also is the day that I officially have a new job (more on that later, but yay!) The last couple of days I have actually been posting again, which is good because it does serve as a way to inform my avid fan club of my happenings (the MKAFC for those of you in the know), but moreso a chance to look back on things, and what I've done. unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, not much of it has be uber productive. So, what have I done?

Caught up on some TV that I didn't know existed

This has been on and off as I start getting sucked into things. I've managed to successfully watch the entire run of the new Doctor Who series, which, if you have not watched, is absolutely wonderful. Its light-hearted with just the right amount of dark and seriousness for when it needs to be with an overarching plot over the course of each season, while still being able to be watched episodically without having to be aware of the "big picture". In turn, it led to watching Torchwood, its spinoff series, though I've only managed to make it through 2/3rds of the 1st series of this show. Its good, but I just need to be in the right mood for it. Its perfect for those who want a Who-flavored noir show full of sex and sci-fi.

Of recent days I have been devouring Dexter, a show about a serial killer who works for Miami PD who are in turn trying to catch serial killers, but they don't know that he (Dexter) is also a serial killer. For the most part, its fairly predictable, meaning I've been able to properly deduce whats to come a few episodes before it happens, but I've been happy to see that even though I've been right, I didn't see the path until I was on it. Good stuff.

Transitioning from Dexter to another show starring its main character (Michael C. Hall) brings us to another show about death - Six Feet Under. Its a show about a family in the funeral business, and has been enjoyable though we only made it about 4 episodes into the first season, which is right around the time that Beccas mother had died, and suddenly we were ready for a new show for a bit. Not to create awkwardness in my own post.

But, around the same time as that, i was introduced to a Sci Fi channel mini series called the Lost Room, which is the coolest idea for a show I had heard of ina while. There is a room that goes missing (gasp!) in time and space, and many of the rooms contents are shot into the world, except now they each have a power to them, like the bus ticket will teleport whoever touches it to a road outside of a small town in Arizona, or the room key that will open any door into the lost room for you to enter into. once inside, you can then reopen the door to anywhere else. theres more to it, including cults and factions that are searching for the items for varying reasons. The mini series ends with it set up to potentially become a show on Sci Fi, but considering what they had done within the show, it sort of made it difficult to really justify basing a series around it. Now, a RPG would be pretty cool though.

I also have finally gotten around to starting to watch Battlestar Galactica. I've had the original mini series and all of season one for a while now, but just never made the time to watch it. Finally sat down to watch the mini series, and damn. Just in time to have no time again,right?

Exciting News!!

Today is my cat Elwyns 8th birthday!! Yay!!

Now, I know what you are thinking - why the hell is he talking about his cat, because I do not give a fuck. Well, let me respond to this with my cat is the best cat ever. As in throughout all of time.

Becca and I adapted him through a coworker of a friend who needed to find a home for him quickly. He was her daughters cat who was supposed to take him with her when she moved, but ended up moving into a place that wouldn't allow cats, and then the mothers living situation changed, and Elwyn unfortunately needed to go. He has been living with us since about the beginning of November, and was a bit skiddish, but quickly settled in (like 4 days later, which is pretty quick for a cat this old to be at ease with new owners).

To best describe him, Elwyn is a 200 pound orange and white cat with green eyes. He sleeps, as cats do, but he also secretly fights crime, just like Phantom Zero. When not doing that, he loves to make the rounds sitting in everyones laps or on top of computer keyboards. He fucking rules, and you can be friends with him on facebook if you are not already.
Also, I heard back from the job I was waiting to hear back from. I am their #1 pick. I meet with them again on Thursday to discuss specifics. Thats pretty cool too.

It's been weird lately

It's been a while, but I haven't really been motivated to do much pertaining to writing of late. I tried to once a few weeks back, but opted to save and reread later when I was able to focus better, which worked out well since it was an absolute train wreck of a post starting with real life superheroes and ending with porn ("how can that be bad?" you say).

This times a bit more focused (and much more sober). I lost my job last fall, and have been unemployed since then. I'm hoping to hear back from an interview today, and from everything I have heard from people is that its all good, but I am not hoping to jinx it until I hear officially one way or the other, though with a nor'easter happening, and the majority of the state in a lockdown, I don't know if that will be happening today. In any case, on the verge of having a new job, I've been thinking back over the last several months and its just been so strange. It's been the first time ever since high school that I have not had a job, and I somehow felt overwhelmed by the fact that I had nothing to do. Typically, when I have nothing to do I like to try and do anything, usually involving building or planning something rediculous (say 13 hour engagements or internet decathlons) but this time round, I just couldn't focus. I had an "awesome" idea for the greatest contibution to the scientific community and had even built a team of intrepid and charismatic science enthusists, but it sort of off and died without meaning to.

Now that I am possibly going to be doing something again, I am almost aprehensive to return to the world and contribute something meaningful once again. The funny thing is that it would be in a job that does pretty much the same thing that I was doing before getting laid off. Go figure.

Like I said, its still to early for anything, but we're all hoping here that it'll happen, apprehension or no. actually having an income will be good again, especially since we have a wedding to pay for.

The Great Crap Swap 2008

Welcome back friends, this time I post with some more joyous stuff. My last posting was a bit required almost, but now its all bullshit all the time. So lets get started.

So, for the past 4-5 years, We have gone to friends house for New Years Eve to ring in the new year with debauchery and incessant drinking (or something like that), and its a good time for all. One of the things that happens is the Yankee Crap Swap. For those of you not in the know, the Yankee Crap Swap is the same thing as a yankee swap or a white elephant except where as with those you give ho-hum gifts that are not bad but have no use for, in the crap swap anything goes, so long as its not trash (as in literal trash) and you did not buy it. In years past, I have given a night light Jesus and a framed picture of me holding a jug. This year, I feel that I did some pretty awesome gifting. Read on to find out more!

Starting things off right, I thought I would share one that is near and dear to us all, except I took the time to make it PG:
Printed onto a mini postcard sized canvas we had laying around, naked princess leia playing guitar hero also got a second stamp of a golden bra. this makes it 200% sexier than before because if you look closely, you will not that the bra is see through, so it has that extra bit of alure that everyone loves.

Up next, was this picture printed and wrapped in an old package of double stuffed oreos with 3 stale cookies remaining:
the printed one is better looking, but you can follow this link to see it in all its HD glory. Thanks Bill from Pawtuckett!

Now, this one you may or may not recognize, but this is an original by Luke Milton for an event in a contest I held over the summer of 2007, the CMX Decathlon:
This was printed to 8 x 10 and framed. I was happy that the person who got it was excited because apparently she was a closet KBZ fan. Who knew?

And finally, the gift that I loved to give and thought was hilarious when someone opened it and didn't know what the hell they were going to do with it:
Drywall. Man, this was great. I don't think anyone else thought it was quite as funny, but thats why I rule.

And thats it. I ended up with a pretty crappy gift (I think it was an animatronic George W. Bush dressed as a cowboy. I'm not really sure because it was taken outside and I haven't seen it since. I hope he's ok, its cold out there, and i don't think his winning smile and rheteric is going to get him out of trouble in the wilds of Southern New Hampshire).

Off to a Start

First post back, and I bring you nothing good. In fact, its the exact opposite of good, well, maybe the exact opposide of goods cousin or brother. And, its also not really me bringing it to you either, its moreso Becca sharing it (via facebook and me here to all 6 of you who read this so as to explain my lack of presence) so here goes

So this is hard, and not very good news at all.

My mom, Esther Krest died Friday (1/2/09). We are doing ok here, my brother, dad, Mike and I are all together and doing the best we can. We will be in the process of making services this weekend and the coming week. Thanks again for your kind words and support. We all really appreciate them.

Love, Becca
(Craig, Mat and Mike)

and

Thanks again to everyone for their kind words and support. We have made some arrangements to say our goodbyes to my mom.

Mom's obituary will be listed tomorrow, Monday, January 5th in the Willimantic Chronicle and the Hartford Courant.

Her visitation will be at Potter Funeral Home in Willimantic from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, January 6th. We will be holding a memorial service at the First Church of Christ of Mansfield on Thursday, January 8th at 10:00 a.m.

Please, if you or your family are local, please give support to my dad and brother. Though times are tough now, they will defiantly need your support as time goes on. They will need you more then ever in the coming months and year and so on. Thank-you for all that you have done for us and all you will do.

Love, Becca

Needless to say, things are not going well, but they are getting better. I just ask that you keep Becca and her family in your thoughts and hearts.

http://potterfuneralhome.com/funeralwebsites/scripts1/obituary2.php?Counter=2043