Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night

Time to settle down in my cap for a long winter's nap, while visions of sugar plums dance through the kids' heads.

If I hear a clatter on the lawn, though, I'm grabbin' the 12-gauge. I'm not that crazy. Besides, if true, he'd need help finding the chimney, since we don't have one.

Whoopee!

I got an interesting letter in the mail today from the friendly federal government.

Apparently, I have now collected enough credits to be eligible for Social Security. I've apparently got enough credits as of this year to receive retirement benefits.

Of course, it won't matter worth a damn because when I do retire at 65 (assuming I work until then) there won't be any money left - since the fund is supposed to be empty in 2040 (based on the message on the front page) and I won't turn 65 until 2042.

Yippee.

I just found it funny.

Merry F'n Christmas

In the Spirit of Christmas, here's a couple of clips for ya:

First, the original "Spirit of Christmas":



Second, the one that's gotten a lot more circulation:



From a couple of years ago, courtesy of Mr/s. Garrison:



And last, O Holy Night, complete with electro-shock therapy:



Not in the mood right now for Mr. Hankey, though.

Good taste

Yesterday was a calm day, and we all stayed home as some of us did not feel well.

On days like these, it's quite easy to just curl in front of the TV.

We let Alex watch a few things during the day, but he was most excited about one clip.

Not Toy Story, Clifford, or any other cartoon.

No, he enjoyed THIS clip most of all yesterday. Complete with random two-year-old dancing.

At least he is acquiring some good taste.



Too bad I don't have an old Halloween picture available to show him.

Celebration time

I finished my final class last Wednesday with the makeup of my final exam. I got the grades, and amazingly enough, after all the other things that have happened in the last two months, I managed to score an A in the class!

The group project - a firm and industry analysis focused on Chevron - scored a 94, and the final was a 92, which was enough to overcome a mediocre quiz average.

So, I finish my first semester with 6 credits completed, and 2 B's and 1 A for a GPA of 3.33. I haven't had a GPA that high since Regis!

Now I just have to figure out what I can take next semester, if anything. We're still not sure what to do about the car, and GSU is switching to full-semester classes only so I won't be able to do half-term classes anymore.

Developing...

Interesting Christmas gift

This is courtesy of Marietta Poker Supply. Perfect for the politically conservative poker player.



Nice.

I clicked through from Wicked Chops Poker.

Like father, like son

Obviously, I've slowed down on blogging while at home, so I didn't post about this right away.

On Thursday, Falcons coach Jim Mora Jr. had a semi-meltdown on a Washington radio station, stating that even if the Falcons were in the middle of a playoff run, he'd ditch the team right away if Ty Willingham left Washington.

Of course, right now, the Falcons are in the middle of a playoff run. At 7-6, a win last night would solidify their standing in the playoff hunt with games remaining against the Panthers and Eagles. Last night was a must-win game.

After the comments, I figured the Falcons would get killed by 30 points against the Cowboys. Hearing your coach would ditch you in a heartbeat isn't exactly the sort of thing to boost team morale.

Well, the Falcons lost 38-28. Vick played well, but the Cowboys played better. the Falcons now sit at 7-7, after losing a must-win game to another potential playoff team, on national TV, at home.

And Jim Mora Jr. will probably be on the unemployment line this offseason. He was already on the hot seat, but I'm pretty sure he's now gone after the year and the Falcons finish 7-9 or 8-8 and out of the playoffs.

At least he now has a meltdown to come close to his old man:

Tag. You're it.

Since I got tagged by CrankyCon, I am doing the following:

1) Go to Wikipedia.
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day, but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday.
4) List two important birthdays and one death.
5) One holiday or observance (if any).

Events:

44 BC - Julius Caesar, Dictator of the Roman Republic, is stabbed to death by Marcus Junius Brutus, Decimus Junius Brutus and several other Roman senators on the Ides of March.

1545 - First meeting of the Council of Trent.

1991 - Germany formally regains complete independence after the four post-World War II occupying powers (France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union) relinquish all remaining rights.

1998 - Titanic defeats Star Wars for the #1 place in the North American domestic box office, grossing $471 million. (Men vomit worldwide)

Births (apparently it was a very interesting day):

1767 - Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States (d. 1845)

1933 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice

1940 - Phil Lesh, American musician (Grateful Dead)

1955 - Dee Snider, American singer

1975 - Eva Longoria, American actress

Death:

1975 - Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (b. 1900)

Holiday/Observance:

In the Roman calendar, the Ides of March.

Darth Vader to play Poker Brat

Sometimes, you just can't make this stuff up.

If Mace Windu plays Phil Ivey, I think I'll probably throw up.

'Tis the season

Last year, I wasn't really feeling too full of Christmas cheer. Mostly, I was just tired of the commercial aspect of it all. You can only hear and see so many Walmart and mall ads before you just get tired of it all.

Thankfully, this season so far has been different. With Alex being a year older, and having a little sister, he's much more keen on what's going on around him. Namely, Christmas trees and Christmas music.

Since Samantha came home, he's been very eager to help out with everything - holding, feeding, getting things for all of us, even cleaning up more. Mostly, though, he's been spending a lot more time with me (compared to before) as we both go do things. The nice benefit of this, aside from more quality time, is that he feels like a really big boy in being able to go out and do more.

Yesterday was such an example. He "helped" me bring the Christmas tree home. Last week, he was very excited about the Christmas trees he started seeing at the hospital and at school. We have a small tree that he wanted to put up in his room, and we did that Thursday night. Yesterday, we got the tree, brought it home, and decorated it while everyone in the house slept.

He was very proud of his work.

Today, we started going through his room to clean out too-small clothes and decorate a little more. The radio was on, with Christmas tunes from the Fish. He liked it - a lot.

We haven't really talked about Santa very much. He does think it is to celebrate Jesus's birthday, and that's why there are so many parties going on. I'm perfectly OK with that line of thinking.

I guess having more little ones around kinda helps with being more celebratory this time of year. As long as it doesn't snow very much, I'm fine with it.

Get crunk wit da Pope, yo

Received this in my e-mail today from Young Adult Ministries - Atlanta:

PILGRIMAGE TO ITALY -October 4-13th,2007

Travel with other Young Adults to Italy in an unforgettable Pilgrimage with Fr. Ricardo Bailey- aka Fr. Crunk. You will visit Rome and see Pope Benedict XVI during his Sunday Angelus and have free time to explore the Eternal City. You will spend two days in Assisi where you will have mass at the tomb of St. Francis and visit the Basilicas of St Clare and St Mary of the Angels. You can discover Renaissance art and architecture on a day trip to Florence, the city of Michelangelo. Get off the beaten path and visit little-known towns where you will pray with Italian friars and nuns who will give talks and provide spiritual "entertainment." You will be able to worship in the holy monastery of Mary in Loreto and have mass at the tomb of the mystic Padre Pio in San Giovanni Rotondo.

I've written on Fr. Bailey before - he used to be at St. Joseph's before leaving for Holy Spirit in NW Atlanta.

More info, click here.

Where have I been?

It's been a busy week.

Since last Sunday night, as a matter of fact, punctuated by Samantha Grace's screaming face at 7:12 AM Monday morning:

We checked into Northside Hspital at 5 AM, because, well, that's when they asked us to arrive to begin pre-op. Everything went fine during the delivery, though afterwards they did take her to the NICU for some testing on her respiratory and circulatory system through Monday night. Thankfully, everything was found to be quite OK, even though she hadn't been crying much. She is quite over that now, though, and is now crying plenty. Not too much, not too little, mostly only when hungry.

7 lbs., 10 oz. 19.5 in long, and a head full of BLACK hair. Again. Alex had a head full of black hair too, before it turned red and then blondish-brown. I'm not sure what color her hair will turn out to be.

After a few nights in the hospital getting to know each other, doing introductions, and generally looking cute and cuddly, we came home.
Odd observations so far:

-When sat up, she looks like a little Buddha baby.
-In coming up with nicknames, and gifts/clothes she got, we jokingly called her Sammy the lamb. Later, when she cried, we called her Sammy the Bull. She doesn't cry much...but when she does, she really means it.
-She's very wide-eyed when awake.
-She's learning very quickly. In one odd moment, when I was about to give her a bottle, she REACHED OUT AND GRABBED THE BOTTLE AND PUT IT IN HER MOUTH. They're lucky to do this at 3 months old, let alone 3 days old. Might have been lucky but, but who knows.
-Alex is enjoying the role of the big brother. Specifically, having a bigger room, bigger bed, and being able to do/get things for us and her. He's been amazingly well-behaved. Or, we're just successful at feeding his ego.

Posting willl continue to be light for the rest of this week. I'm still working on my group presentation for GSU along with getting used to no more than 4 hours of consecutive sleep.

We've uploaded pictures on Snapfish, because blogger sucks to load pictures.