Running The Marathon

In case you didn't know, we're hip-deep in the Second Worst Marathon Ever over at The Dunesteef's "That Gets My Goat". A new episode every day for...23 days in a row, I think...I might have counted wrong, because we started with zero. Anyway, if you like Big and Rish, you'll probably love this.

Don't Stop Believing

My wife says she's about ready to get rid of these blocks. She says that she's tired of always having to change them back when the kids change them to say "be evil".

Of course, I was the one who started it back in the day, but now my kids have picked it up and run with it, and they won't stop. They're running up the score.

In case you're wondering why I would post this, you should follow this link and listen to the story that is presented there.

Giving Thanks For Something Else

Thursday was thanksgiving and then Friday we had pizza for dinner.

I stuffed myself far worse with the pizza than the turkey. Is anyone else like me? I like thanksgiving okay, but I'd really rather fill up with a different bunch of carbs. Thanksgiving fare just doesn't turn me on.

Falcon

I got this Millennium Falcon at a great price about a month ago. Now I've finally got it hung from my ceiling.

I think I've managed to get all the ships I want. Gotta think of something else to collect now.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was at my sister's house this year. My wife and I both had the day off...sort of. She actually had to work, but it was a special overnight thing. Instead of her usual shift, they started at 10:00 PM. So, she got home much earlier than she normally would, and was able to get some sleep before it was time to head over to eat.

We had our usual turkey, and all the fixings to go with it. As well as the usual astounding variety of pies. I shouldn't have eaten any, considering my diabetes, but I did anyway. I've been pretty bad as of late. I'm sure it's shortening my lifespan, but I have a hard time saying no. I just like that stuff too much.

After dinner, everyone planned out their day after shopping trips. For several years now, Day After Thanksgiving Day sales have been held on the day of Thanksgiving. The only thing we really wanted this year was a great deal we found on a Canon EOS Rebel T6i at Kohl's. I've been wanting a DSLR camera ever since I got the chance to use my brother-in-law's camera when we took family pictures in Canada years ago. The pictures just come out so much better. I'd really like to be able to have something like that for pictures of our family adventures. It would certainly improve the quality of this blog, for example.

So, we went over to Kohl's, which would be opening at 6:00 PM for crazy people like us to brave the crowds in search of deals.

I've gone shopping for Day After Thanksgiving several times over the years, and every time things have turned out well somehow. Not this time however. The doors opened, and I dashed to the corner of the store that the guy manning the door told me would contain the camera we were after. I ran all the way there, despite all sorts of people giving me dirty looks for taking it this far. I made it to where the electronics sales were being kept, and started looking for the camera. But I wasn't seeing it. A moment later, my wife, who came in behind me told me that the last one was gone. She'd located the camera in the mess of various sales available, but as she'd gone to grab it, another man had snatched the last one before she could get to it. We'd failed. I was pretty bummed.

Kohl's doesn't need to be bummed, though. The camera did what it was supposed to do. It got us in the store. We wandered around for a while, loathe to just walk away empty handed. We ended up finding several things that we wanted to buy for Christmas presents, and spent a lot of money. So, way to go Kohl's. You win this time, you bastards.

Jimmy? Is That You?

We watched Mickey's Once Upon A Christmas and each time they had turkey for Christmas dinner, I couldn't help but wonder if they knew the guy.

Miss Sharon Jones!

I Started watching Luke Cage over the weekend. Pretty good stuff. I'm about four episodes in I think, maybe five. 

That show has a sweet daddy soundtrack. I really love how they work the music in, having artists performing or auditioning at Cottonmouth's club, then using that music over fights or other things. Really cool. 

 I was stoked to see Charles Bradley performing on an episode.

I was wondering if we'd see Sharon Jones on an episode, then I found out that she died over the weekend. I didn't realize she wasn't in better health.

I saw the trailer for her movie, and it led me to believe that she'd beaten cancer, but I guess not so much. Sad to hear. We'll miss her.

Christmas Decorations

My oldest son and I put up the outside lights today.

That is two years in a row. I think that's a record for us. Pretty sad, but true. We never miss a year festooning our indoor (read easy to reach) spaces with so many decorations you might want to puke, but the outdoor roofline, that's a different story.

I sent my son out his bedroom window, and he clipped the lights in place while I directed him from below. I think he liked the opportunity to go on the roof without getting yelled at for it, so he didn't complain about being put in mortal danger.

We'll see if we can do it again next year, and run the record to a whopping three years in a row.

Dishwasher II: Revenge Of The Palmolive

A while back, I posted about a strange, soothing sentimental feeling that I got washing dishes by hand. Handwashing became necessary when our dishwasher broke, and I was shocked to find that I kind of liked it. It's been several months now, though, and I've finally remembered why it is that I don't like washing dishes by hand. When you have to wash dishes by hand, the kitchen always looks like this:

Dirty dishes everywhere. Always a mess. I might find it soothing to wash dishes by hand, but it stops being that way when every time I do dishes it takes at least an hour. Everyone hates washing dishes, so they avoid it if at all possible. So, the dishes pile up...and up and up. I'm sick of it.

When I was a young man, and there were four of us living at home with my dad, we assigned certain days of the week to each person as their day to do dishes. The caveat was that if you didn't do them on your day, they were still yours to do the next day, and the day after that, until you finally did them. I loved it, because my little brother always slacked, so my day became his day more often than not.

But now, as a parent, I can't handle the house being in that condition. It's just not a situation I enjoy.

As soon as I told my wife about my change of mind, she immediately started looking for dishwashers. I think she'd been sick of it for much longer, and was only holding off because I'd said that I kind of liked it. She found a great Black Friday price on a dishwasher, and it will be delivered to the house next week.

Unfortunately, I've got to hook it up, so we may be doing dishes by hand for a while longer while I try to figure out how to do that.

Holiday Episode Announcement

We're going to do a special holiday episode of the show, and we would love to have audience participation. Check it out on the main Dunesteef podcast feed—(EDIT: Now that the feed is gone, the only way to hear the show is over on the Dunesteef Podcast YouTube page, which I am embedding below).

Strange Days

If you were wondering if you'd ever see another thing online that wasn't about the election results, I'm here to save your sanity.

Why not listen to a podcast about a completely non-election related subject? Yay!

 Follow the link to the podcast post, right click here to download, or just push the play button below.

Girl, You Know It's True

Me and Rish were looking at books at Target tonight. We noticed a weird pattern. You see it? What's the deal?

That's 24 different books in a Target book section. This isn't a Barnes & Noble, some giant store with a hundred thousand books to choose from. In that tiny space, that many books have girl in the title. 

It's fiction, non-fiction, thrillers, science fiction, historical, contemporary, comedy, self-help...freaking everything. What's going on? 

Does the word girl somehow guarantee top sales? WTF? So weird.

Homophony

I've only been at work for 30 minutes, and this is already my second homophone error I've seen.

The other one said this: "IT'S THE FINAL PUSH BY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES BEFORE PEOPLE HIT THE POLES TOMORROW". Wah wah.

What did those Polish people do to deserve that anyway? Or are people hitting phone poles? Can't decide which is worse.

Found Some Old Photos

I found these pictures among my dad's old slides from the '80s. Stuff I got for Christmas in 1984.

And a Lego car I made for my Luke Skywalker.

I, obviously, got a hold of my dad's camera and took these ones myself. Surprising that they were in focus at all.

I guess some things never change. I still take pictures of all the toys I get for Christmas, and the ones I get for my birthday, and even the ones I just buy on a Thursday while at Walmart to pick up some batteries, laundry detergent, and a soda.

Need A Shave?

I saw this at Walmart today.

Star Wars is cool and all, but it seems like they ought to get someone who might need a razor as the face you put on the box. Maybe Chewbacca could shave all that shag off instead, because this guy on the box sure doesn't look like he needs a razor.