The Day after Xmas

The day after Xmas was simpler for me than it was for lot's of folks. We stayed home and had no plans to go anywhere. Santa was good to the kids. They were up and at it right away on Xmas day. We did the whole Santa thing up good. Cookies and chocolate milk for Santa and pizza and carrots for Rudolph and the gang. I even got up on top of the garage and made sleigh tracks in the snow. Just like everywhere else though, it rained the whole day here and had us stuck in the house. Some friends stopped by in the afternoon and we shared some beers and some Veggie Beef stew I had cooking in the crockpot. Good stuff.


The girls enjoying Ellen's Little People Treehouse from Santa

The day after brought on a small bout of cabin fever for me. Having heard the My Little Pony theme song for the 200th time probably didn't help. So as the kids continued to play with their new goodies, and as Stacey broke into OCD mode (which is normal when her parents or brother are coming to stay with us) I took off on a ride. Put down about 24 miles of ice and snow riding. It was a beautiful day. I just gotta get my fatt ass back into shape. I didn't like what the scale told me this morning. So for the moment, I'm pretty dedicated to the cause.



Self Portrait


Rosedale Road Hill. Beautiful views with snow and ice on the trees.


Ankle band with Emergency Contact info on the back. In case a motorists purposefully or accidentally decides to mow me down.


Another Self Portrait. Otis Road is pretty boring.

I'll Be Home For Christmas

I hope you are too. We drove through some crap yesterday that scared me enough, and that was nothing compared to what this storm seems to be brewing up. Kinda funny how the little ones change your thinking on such matters. We left Des Moines from a Schwartz family Xmas. We thought we could get out in front of the storm, but we couldn't. By the time I realized we were hosed, we were already too far to make any sense out of turning back. We made it to Williamsburg. There's a nice little convenience store there. The girls terrorized the place, but it was a cheerful terrorization, so I didn't make too big of a deal out of it. Finally, we decided to dig out my laptop and a movie. This did did the trick until the storm passed and the plows went through.


Mara and Ellen watching Rudolph at a convenience store. Technology :)




Three years ago my sister and her husband (boyfriend or fiance then) rolled their car on their way back from a Xmas gathering. They made out okay, but obviously that could have went either way. Point is, it's just not worth it folks. It's nice to see family around the holidays, but it shouldn't be for the wrong reasons.

Catastrophe Averted!!!

Stacey and I had grand plans of getting our shopping done early this year, but as usual we procrastinated. Mara has been asking for this useless multipiece made in China overpriced pieces of plastic called Ponyville Amusement Park since before she could pronounce Amusement correctly. We thought this summer that it was a phase and would be replaced in her mind by the holiday toy de jour. But the Ponyville Amusement Park has prevailed despite its tenure at the top of Santa's list. So I set out yesterday in full force to find it. Starting of course, at my computer. Not available anywhere I could find. Fine, I thought. I know they have it at Target because I saw it there before (when Mara was with me). I go to Target mid afternoon expecting not to encounter the kind of pedestrian traffic (not to mention the lazy fat-asses on those little carts. Those carts aren't for you fat-ass, those are for people who can't walk, not those who just don't want to) that sends me into homicidal rage. I was wrong. On top of the annoying idiots on their phones taking up the whole aisle with themselves and their carts, Ponyville Amusement Park was nowhere to be found. I left Target angry and empty handed. Same thing at Walmart, except add the element of trashiness that Walmart inherently provides. I went home defeated. I'm not one that desires to spoil my kids with material things, but Mara really wants this. So Stacey put out a Ritter APB on Ponyville Amusement Park. I thought to myself, "There's no way." This must be the Tickle Me Elmo equivelant for us this year. But I was wrong.

Good ol' Aunt Dani to the rescue. Apparently Aunt Dani extended the APB to her co-workers and alas. The call came in at 6:40am. Ponyville Amusement Park had been located by one of Dani's fellow office workers on some relatively obscure toy website. Stacey armed with Blackberry, debit card, and laptop went to battle and procured Ponyville Amusement Park. Christmas has been saved. Thanks Aunt Dani!!!!!!

Let it snow

Got out for a lunch ride today figuring this would be it for singletrack around here with the snow coming and all. Peaceful out there in the woods. I love riding in the snow, but after today it'll be at least hub deep if the forecast holds up.