I love the Internet

http://www.crystalpro.com/worst/index.html

This is fantastic.

Mini-Caching Event/Marathon

Tim, Karen, Roger, and Gail came over last nite for a dinner party. We had some lasagne and naan with a salad. Pretty pedestrian fare for the Hewitt house. It worked out OK though as it allowed me more time to visit. Not that I really needed it. It seemed that our guests enjoyed our company as they stayed for 6 hours! Not that I mind, actually. Quite the opposite, I was just surprised. Usually a dinner party is a 2-3 hour thing. If I had known it would have been that well enjoyed, I would have planned another activity. Finally a party where we could have finished a game of Trivial Pursuit, or Monopoly.

After we closed the door when they left, Tannis and I looked at each other; puzzled. "What the hell was that?" It sure was nice to visit without being rushed, but seriously! We are so used to friends who come over with their kids of the same age and leave around 8:15 so they can get them in bed. We were both just tickled to have finally reached that eschilon in life where we are able to party a bit later. Thanks Roger, Gail, Tim and Karen. Thanks for helping us grow up.

The kids were real performers all night, climbing all over our guests. Brooke was taking surveys and Mitch was climbing on Roger like he was a jungle gym.

It appears I need more booze. We had an immediate lack of vodka, and it seems Roger likes whisky. Who knew? I had him pegged for a beer guy. Also, the gin seems to be missing. I'll have to rectify this.

Christmas day update

It wasn't a Playstation 3. But I DID get a sweet pair of new snowshoes, nice wine glasses, and tickets to the Christina Aguilera concert in March. I get to go with Tannis and Toshya. I think it will be huge fun. Partly for the campiness of the whole concert idea, and partly to watch one VERY sexy chick. It should be cool to watch toshya lose her mind.

Had my grandparents over for breakfast along with Sheri, Sandi, and Kris. I made that breakfast pizza thing again. I love that. Hollandaise sauce is sooo yummy.

Tannis seemed pleased with her gifts although I still question why I buy her kitchen-y stuff for Christmas. Oh well, she really liked the mixer and the vaccuum.

Brooke was a little disappointed that she didn't get a giant Barbie from Santa. Mitch, on the other hand was pleased as hell with the Love 'n Licks puppy he got. Oh well. I guess disappointment is part of the game.

All tolled, a very good Christmas. We are looking forward to the Regina visit. I can't wait to spend some time away with the family.

Christmas Eve

Here it is. The big moment. The kids are snuggled in their beds waiting for the morning. We had a nice dinner at Bruce and Theresa's with my side of the family. Gayleen's group was represented by Sheri as the rest of them are in Africa visiting Danny. It was a really nice visit. The kids played their asses off. I didn't see them hardly all night. We tried a gift exchange this year that saw each person show up having brought a present and pulling a number to pick gifts under the tree. It worked well as swiping gifts from another person was kept to a minimum by the rule that the holder of the gift was allowed to refuse to have the gift 'swiped'.

It was really nice to visit with Sandi and also with the rest of the family. It was a little odd not having Gayleen there, but not nearly as awkward as it will be tomorrow at Tannis' parents without Sandra and Nash there. This is their first Christmas in Calgary. Should be interesting.

Tannis has been hinting all month that she went a little overboard on my gift. I have a feeling that it isn't a Playstation 3. It seems it isn't yet available, so I will be getting part of it and a picture of the rest. I got her a jewellry box and Mitch got her a cake pan and Brooke got her a vacuum. I also bought the mixer she has been wanting. I know it's not much of a gift, but whatever. It will probably be a huge hit. I was so stoked last year with the "girls day out" that I bought her and Tosh, but that never really happened.

I think her and I actually ended up using the Moxie's gift certificate.

The kids left some art for Santa to take with him when he leaves. After some discussion, Tannis and I decided that Santa would leave them a note thanking them for the gift and reminding them to be good.

I hope it's a hit.

I must sleep now. We are in for a big day tomorrow. I hope the kids have fun. God, I love them.



Merry Christmas.

600 Caches!

I found my 600th Geocache today. I was planning on finding a different geocache for my 600th. It was a Christmas themed cache that once you found it, you had to do a good deed. These good deeds were all contained in the cache and you were to select one when you got there. Count on 1Queenand 4Jokers to come up with cool cache ideas.

As I was driving to work, my Blackberry buzzed with the new cache e-mail. And it was right on the way to work. And ertyu has a job so I had a really good chance at a First-to-Find. Decision made. It showed that the cache was in Assiniboine Forest. So I parked the car in the lot on Corydon and as I was walking away, who pulls in, but TurdleEggs. Cool!

It was a great sunny day, -2C, and I was out caching with a good friend and finding my 600th cache. Ok, so it wasn't a day out with my family, but it was a good time nevertheless.

Christmas is coming

Last night was fun. It was Brooke's Grade 1 Christmas ... er Holiday Pageant. No sense offending anyone. We had a section on Kwanzaa. I counted 2 black kids on the stage. Now, I have no problem with equality, but come on. I submit that these kids have never even celebrated it in the past.
Kwanzaa is 39 years old. That's right, 39 years. The significant holiday of african americans is one year older than I am. I am not disagreeing with the principles of Kwanzaa. They are 7 noble principles that everyone could benefit from following. Kwanzaa is a North American tradition that was invented by Ron Karenga. He was the leader of the United Slaves Organization. He was also convicted of the wrongful imprisonment and abuse of 2 women. Also African American. I encourage you to read up on this, it may shed some light.
I wished I could have seen Brooke a bit better, she was up on the stage tucked behind a few other kids. I enjoyed watching her perform. I always do. The concert was fairly short. Which was a good thing. Mitch crashed practically before it even started. Grandma enjoyed holding him while he slept. She said it was a treat.
Grandpa Mogg was there too. Grandma Mogg was at bingo.

First mobile blog entry

If I can make this work it would make life a but easier, and allow me to edit my blog on the blackberry.