Merry Christmas To All

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas to all who read this! Nancy and I will be leaving for Duluth in the morning and we are very excited to see our kids. Christmas at Nick and Scotts then Back to Bemidji.
Nancy and I each have 10 total days off so we gotta make the best of them! Maybe we will see some of you over the holidays.

Top 10 lists

It's that time of year again, when everybody and their brother makes a Best Of list for the year that only has a week or two to go. I've managed to find one that was actually worth the time to read and made me laugh. It's a list of the best movie trailer mash-ups of 2006. For those not familiar with the genre, ordinary folks from the internets who have video editing software and no life recut bits of movies to make a trailer that is completely unlike the original movie, or they combine two movies to make one new movie. Probably the most well known example of this is the mash-up of Brokeback Mountain and Back to the Future, appropriately titled Brokeback to the Future. So, without further ado here's the list. Get a beverage and visit the restroom, because each of these vids is about 2 minutes long. 2 minutes times 11 videos (Why don't you just make 10 louder?) = you wanna be comfy.

10 best trailers

My favorites:
Must Love Jaws (a mash-up of Must Love Dogs in concept and the classic Jaws)
Office Space Recut (really, can you go wrong with this movie in any form?)
Martin Scorsese's Sesame Streets (f*$&!)
Shining (finally, a Stephen King movie with a happy ending)

Blog management

I'm not sure how many of you are aware of something called RSS. If you're like me and you read more than one or two blogs, RSS has the potential to make your life much easier. When I first started reading blogs, and blogging, I would log onto blogger once per day and check each of the links in my sidebar. This was a gigantic waste of time, because on any given day only about one third of the people I linked to had a new post. Then I learned that there is a better way. Enter RSS.

RSS is an acronym that stands for Really Simple Syndication. Simple, huh? You may have noticed a little orange symbol with white curved lines on many websites that you visit. That's a symbol that the site has an RSS feed. Blogger doesn't seem to have this feed symbol, but that's OK because the feed still exists. Here's how to make RSS work for you. First, you need an RSS aggregator. This is a tool that will go out and check all the blogs you tell it to, on a minute by minute basis, and see if there's anything new there. Kind of like what I was doing in the old days, but without all that manual checking nonsense. I personally use bloglines.com but there are many choices out there. Once you log on to bloglines (the process is similar for other sites) it will ask you to create an account. You'll need to complete some basic info, much like any other site.

Once you have your account set up, you're ready to start using the service. On the left half of the screen you'll see the bloglines logo and some tabbed folders. Start with the folder titled Feeds. Beneath Feeds you'll see a link titled Add. Click this and you will see the following:



Now, open another browser window and go to the blog you want to subscribe to. Copy the URL from the address bar and go back to the bloglines page. Paste the URL into the box labelled Blog Feed or URL and click Subscribe. You may get more than one choice of feeds or you may just get one. If you get multiple feeds, the first one listed should be fine. Select the feed by putting a check in the box. If there is only one then this step isn't required. Skip all the other settings such as folder, display settings, etc. For me anyway, the default ones work fine. And you can always change them later if you choose. Click the subscribe button at the bottom.




You should now see the name of the blog you subscribed to over on the left underneath the Add link where you started. Click the name of the blog, and all the new content will be displayed in the main portion of your window. It's as simple as that. Now you can continue to add other blogs as well. But it's not just about blogs. Many sites have RSS feeds that can be tracked in bloglines. I track flickr accounts of friends and get notified whenever they upload new pictures. I also track various newspaper columnists (you'll see James Lileks' feed in the example above) and even some news sites. The world, or at least the RSS-enabled world, is now your oyster. Enjoy.

Our Christmas Plans

I saw Lois' post and I thought I would give you an update on what we are doing also.
Nick and Scott have decided to host Christmas for our family this year. This will be the first time we are not hosting our family. Because we are going to Duluth over Christmas we decided not to put up a tree. That's a first also! Less stress for us.
Randee is flying into Duluth on Christmas eve and we will leave for Duluth that day also. We are very excited to spend a few days at Nick and Scott's house alone with our kids.
Nancy and I are taking the week off between Christmas and New Years this year. We should be returning to Bemidji on Tuesday evening with Randee (we think). I don't know for sure but I think Nick and Scott will be coming to Bemidji on Friday evening for the weekend. I believe Randee will go back to Duluth with Nick on Monday or Tuesday and then she fly's back to California on Wednesday.

Our 30th

As some of you may remember, it was 30 years ago yesterday that Nancy and I were married. We had a pretty nice day together but just a bit busier than I like. We started off by having coffee in the hot tub and just having a relaxing for the first couple of hours. Then things got busy. Nancy had a hair appointment, and I had some things on the "honey do" list while she was at her appointment. We then went out for lunch at about 11:30 at T-Juan's and had an early cocktail knowing it would be a full day of Christmas shopping. We must have hit every major store in Bemidji. We finally quite about 5:30 and stopped by the Northwood Steak House, had some appetizers and a beer. I was glad the shopping was mostly over. We had a light dinner at home and called it a night!

Our Holiday Journey

Everybody must be busy as our blog is experiencing little activity right now...& that is to be expected!

Getting ready for the holidays is a journey...be it a short one, but a journey, anyway. I am in the midst of the journey! I am a insufferable list maker, indicative of my age & the busyness of my life. Today, I am on the 15th or so list...& it includes things like, water the plants (which normally I don't need this chore put on a list!), dust, make meatballs, (the little bbq ones that you eat with toothpicks!), make my cheeseball (a Goodyear tradition), pick up some last minute gifts for our parents, & maybe make some dipped pretzels...oh, and I forgot my wonderful, best toffee (both items will suffice for office goodies)...& , &, &....! See why I need lists!

Next Friday, Dale & I head out about 4 to pick Katie up from UMD & from there we will head to Alicia & Ryan's to spend the night. In the morning, we will head to visit Dale's family in RWF, & then come back to Bemidji on Christmas Day. Alicia & Kane will go with us just for the day, because they have plans in Bemidji with Ryan's family on Christmas Day. (Ryan has to work...he is in retail so he is unable to join us in Redwood).

I am looking forward to connecting with my family sometime during the week after Christmas...something that has gotten more important to me each year! It is so exciting to have such great Christmas plans...it really makes my holiday special. And, before we know it, this holiday will join our other memories of special times with special people. Enjoy!

Not much new here

I've had a busy week at work, with another looming. I took my laptop home Friday because I have a big presentation on Thursday with some of our leaders. I'm sure I could get it done before then during the normal 9-5, but it will be nice to be able to spend some time on the presentation with no time constraints. I'm making it in powerpoint, which isn't one of my strong suits, so it's also nice to work in powerpoint and not have a deadline. I like what little I've done with powerpoint, and think it's a good application and the skills will serve me well. Speaking of skills I'm now an officially certified Project Manager, courtesy of St Thomas University. Doesn't change a thing about how I do my job, but it certainly looks good on paper. And unlike most corporate training classes I actually enjoyed going to this one!

Not much else to report here on the home front. Still no snow in Eagan. Does this mean we don't need to write the annual christmas letter?

Traveling Home

I have been in Mpls most of this week. Its good to be home!

Winter Has Arrived!

Doesn't this look nice? It is so beautiful out...I took this picture around 8:00 this morning. Our cross country skiis will be unpacked this afternoon for sure! We have been patiently waiting for this...enjoy!

Poll Question

When the temp is 5 degrees with a wind chill factor of -14, what happenes when you get out of the hot tub ?

This is not a multiple guess question, please leave your responses.

(kids...you'll have use your imagination on this one)

Splish splash I was taking a bath...

Well our first part of our dream is here. We bought a 6 person hot tub and its installed outside in the back yard. Next spring and summer we will build a deck or patio for it to sit on. Nancy and I will be married for 30 years this December 16 so we thought we would treat ourselves. We don't go on vacations or treat ourselves much and we are not getting any younger...so phase 1 is complete. It really feels great! Alica is right...the more jets, the better!

Happy Thanksgiving

I look forward to this Thanksgiving. I'll get a 4 day weekend and be able to spend time with Nancy and see some of the rest of you on Friday.
Its going to be warm and we are planning to grill this year and just spend time with each other.

20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.

2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.

3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.

4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In-Box."

5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch to Espresso.

6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Smuggling Diamonds"

7. Finish All Your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy."

8. Don't use any punctuation

9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.

10. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."

12. Sing Along At The Opera.

13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme

14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play tropical Sounds All Day.

15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party Because You're Not In The Mood.

16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Bottom.

17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won!, I Won!"

18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking lot, Yelling "Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"

19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."

20. And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......

Share this with Someone To Make Them Smile. Its Called therapy.

The Right was Right

Now that the election is behind us, and the Democrats control both houses of Congress, there's no reason not to admit it: the Right was right about us all along. Here is our 25-point manifesto for the new Congress:

1. Mandatory homosexuality

2. Drug-filled condoms in schools

3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act

4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses

5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State

6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein

7. English language banned from all Federal buildings

8. Math classes replaced by encounter groups

9. All taxes to be tripled

10. All fortunes over $250,000 to be confiscated

11. On-demand welfare

12. Tofurkey to be named official Thanksgiving dish

13. Freeways to be removed, replaced with light rail systems

14. Pledge of Allegiance in schools replaced with morning flag-burning

15. Stem cells allowed to be harvested from any child under the age of 8

16. Comatose people to be ground up and fed to poor

17. Quarterly mandatory abortion lottery

18. God to be mocked roundly

19. Dissolve Executive Branch: reassign responsibilities to UN

20. Jane Fonda to be appointed Secretary of Appeasement

21. Outlaw all firearms: previous owners assigned to anger management therapy

22. Texas returned to Mexico

23. Ban Christmas: replace with Celebrate our Monkey Ancestors Day

24. Carter added to Mount Rushmore

25. Modify USA's motto to "Land of the French and the home of the brave"

From www.rightwasright.us

Thanksgiving

Hi Everyone~
I have been thinking about coming up to Bemidji the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Thanksgiving week. I work PM and Night shift on Thurs, so I would leave on Friday around noonish. I was just wondering if people are going to be around to see. If people are around, that will help me with my decision :) Have a great week!

Today is Veterans Day

Thank a Vet! Bryce really comes to my mind today. He and 10's of thousands more, were deployed for "as long as it took" not just a year or for a few months... WWII vets were there for a long time without any idea when or if they would return. In WWII there was over 16,000,000 total US service members in uniform and of those there were over 400,000 deaths. That war lasted about 4 years (1941-45).
The Gulf War there was about 2.2 million in uniform with just 147 deaths ( about 100 combat related) and lasted less that a year.
Todays War on Terror will be an ongoing war for "as long as it takes". Since 2001 the US has lost over lost 2000 serrvice members and hundreds of thousands have served. Thank a vet of this combat...No matter what your politics are!
A Little History...
Armistice Day Becomes Veterans Day
World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany, however, had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day, as November 11 became known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday 12 years later. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans.
In 1968, new legislation changed the national commemoration of Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. It soon became apparent, however, that November 11 was a date of historic significance to many Americans. Therefore, in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.

The Departed

Has anyone seen The Departed yet? Mandy and I went last weekend. It was a good show, although VERY violent.

Mike Hatch Dreams

Funny item discovered on E-Bay, since we're of a political mind today.

Brownies

The girls have officially become Brownies! They started in October with their first troop meeting. Since then we have gone apple picking (you get a badge for that). This Wednesday they had their second meeting, complete with a bonfire, fire safety lesson and smores. And last Saturday the troop went to Home Depot for a building project. Here are the happy builders in their HD aprons:


Here's a better shot of their project. They built wooden fire trucks that are also a coin bank.


It's a pretty cool program Home Depot runs, and it's not just for Brownies. The first Saturday of the month anybody with kids can attend the session. The kids get to choose from several different projects (fire truck bank, birdhouse, picture frame, etc.) and then they build the project with help from mom/dad and a few HD volunteers. And the entire thing is free. Unless we have plans that day, we're going back in December.

Happy Halloween

I've been remiss about posting in general. But here are some photos of halloween from our house, 10 days late. :)

Emma in her costume


This was the best shot I got of Morgan. She was preparing for the cold weather almost immediately.


Putting jackets on.


Did I mention that it was cold that night?