Sunday, December 24, 2006

xbox us, everyone

Santa Brown (or "Brownie" as we like to call him) brought the boys an xbox 360 for Christmas (one of the motivating factors in our decision to have Brownmas and open presents early). You can check out Ev's reaction below, but first allow me to explain two things:

1. Scott's reaction is an homage to a very well known video capturing another child's reaction to a similar gift. If you have not seen it, that video is worth checking out.

2. When Ev says, "Thank God I have $225!" he meant that he was not going to have to spend the $225 he had saved to pay for half an xbox (he had been working on convincing his dad to pay the other half).

(FYI, this was not recorded on my new camera.)

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Five things you don't know about me

My friend, Shawn, decided to invite me to participate in a social sharing exercise. I am to share with you five things you may not know about me, and then tag five more people to do the same. Let's see...

1. I think Raspberry Zingers are the most delicious food on the planet. I am not a big junk food lover over-all, espcially the sweet stuff, but raspberry zingers are my weakness. I'll eat an entire box in one sitting if someone doesn't stop me!

2. I once spent Christmas Eve with Joe Walsh. In the winter of 1987 I was in Memphis working at a store that sold Christmas decor. Joe Walsh lived in Memphis at the time and happened to live right next door to my boss (Joe had become drinking buddies with my boss' husband). While I was working Christmas Eve that year, my boss and I decided to make Joe a wreath (decorated with little guitars, etc.). We went by his house that evening to deliver the wreath and Joe decided he wanted to hang out (he was already feeling quite jolly, if memory serves). He jumped in the car with us and we drove around with him for a few hours. He wished me a merry Christmas when they dropped me off and I never saw him again.

3. When I was in elementary school I desperately wanted buck teeth. There was a girl a few grades ahead of me who was tough and mean and could do back flips off the high bar on the playground. She had big buck teeth and I thought she was super cool.

4. I anthropomorphize my dogs when no one else is around. My mom and I always anthropomorphized my dog growing up and Scott will tell you I do it a lot now (which Scott actually finds entertaining at times). My secret is that I do it when I am alone. I have entire conversations with the dogs, even when there is no one around to laugh at it. I would like to attribute this behavior to the fact that I spend my days alone in a new city where I don't have any friends yet, but I used to do the same thing in Memphis, so I have no excuse.


5. In college, I once broke my foot simply by climbing into bed. That's all I'm going to say about that one.

Now I have to name five people to share five things. The problem is I think I am supposed to name people who can share on their blogs and I don't know anyone besides Shawn with a blog. So, if any of the people I name don't have a blog, you can either add your five things as a comment to this post, or you can e-mail them to me and I will post them on my blog. The five people are Denise Henderson, Lisa Reschke, Ruth Rodriguez, Birch Harms and Everett Brown.

Happy Brownmas!!


Since we are here in California by ourselves, we decided to open our Christmas presents a few days early. We chose to do it today (Saturday, December 23) and we are officially calling it "Brownmas". That may sound a little sad (or perhaps slightly sacrilegious), but don't fret. We will still celebrate Christmas -- we will save one or two gifts to open that morning and we will have a yummy feast that day (and today!). We actually did the same thing in Memphis last year because we were at my folks' place in Michigan on Christmas day. It looks like we have started a new tradition! Don't worry, we have made Ev promise that when he has little kids of his own, he will celebrate Christmas like a normal person.

Because today is Brownmas, that means yesterday was Brownmas Eve. So of course, we got to open some presents last night as well. I will post a few pictures of Brownmas Eve and Brownmas Day later on Flickr, but the big news is that Scott got me a video camera!!

Come back soon to check out my mad video making skills!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Christmas Memories

Here are some pictures from Christmas 2004 which we spent with my family at my folks' place in Michigan. I won't see my family this Christmas, which makes me very sad, but I feel better when I look at these pictures and remember how much fun we had and how much I love them all.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Training the Terriers

Archie had fun investigating the train that runs around our Christmas tree. This is only a small clip of the long while he spent going back and forth, wathcing the train as it went 'round and 'round. However, Jammer, as you will see, took one look and headed in the other direction. I even put a milkbone in one of the cars to tempt her, but she wanted nothing to do with it!

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

I feel the earth move!

Ev competed in the J.V. league finals last Friday and came in FIRST place in his weight class! Check out the video and you will see why the San Andreas Fault is not the only thing causing earthquakes around here!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

More fun with stop motion

I spent some time tonight playing again with the iStopMotion software and some Stikfas. This is so fun!

Monday, December 04, 2006

iRobot

I have been having a lot of fun playing around with my camera (making the videos of Ev, etc.), so I decided to find some other things to do with it. I downloaded a demo version of Boinx iStopMotion software, which is a tool for creating stop motion animation. I've never done anything like that before, but I made the little video posted below and it was FUN! I filmed it near a big window, and it took a while, so you will see some crazy shadow action on the table as the sun moved across the sky. The little guy in the film is a Stikfas Mechana Segmented Robot.

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Ev is undefeated!

Ev wrestled in his final match of the regular season on Tuesday and pinned the kid in a matter of seconds! That meant he qualified to go to the J.V. League finals which took place Friday. Check back soon for video of the finals!

Oh, and be sure to take a close look at the very end of the video below, where Ev shakes his coach's hand. Check out the guns on that kid! I think we found the missing weapons of mass destruction!

Ev wins again!

Ev wrestled (and won) his third match a couple weeks aqo (I've been slow getting it posted). He is doing so great! We are very proud!