Christmas No More

It is Christmas no more. Last night (January 23rd), I finally took it all down. I told my wife as I was doing it, "It has been up so long, even I am ready for it come down."

This is impressive as I am a huge Christmas nut and almost can't wait for Thanksgiving to be over soon enough so I can start Christmas without being looked at as crazy for beginning it too early.

But, it had all been up too long--mostly due to the fact that since Christmas we had remodeled from the ground up (new tile, toilets, vanities and sinks/faucets, mirrors, paint, towl hooks, and paneling) two bathrooms and our mudroom, laundryroom, and other areas. We've been busy, so Christmas has stayed.

I didn't Cry The Day I Took The Tree Down yesterday, but I did think of the song as it was coming down. You can't know the song without at least humming it as you do the deed (link will download the entire 4.6mb song). By the way, no that picture is not our house, but it is a good depiction of what it looks like when Christmas is officially over.

Global Warming Update #1

Oh the humanity!

9/32 . . . Really?

This may be my most boring post yet, but . . .

Last week I was hooking up one of my Christmas toys--a weather station complete with wind and rain sensors. As I was up about 15 feet in the air ontop of a ladder, ontop of the bed of my truck, I couldn't figure out which wrench was correct.

The 1/4 inch one was too small, but the 5/8 inch wrench too big. Not even any of those dirty metric ones worked. What was one to do?

Out I pulled a 9/32" wrench and it worked! What the H? Really? 9/32"? Who even knew such a wrench existed and why would anyone use it? Does it really add just enough more holding power than 1/4" to justify its existence.

Am I the only one?

Here it is. The beginning of Season 6 and I feel like the only person in America (or probably Canada too for that matter), who has never watched a single "hour" of 24.

I think it may be about time I went and rented Season 1, Disc 1 to see what all the hullabaloo is about. It's okay if I get hooked. Right now I really only have one TV show I watch since I gave up CS(ex)I and CS(ex)I: Miami. That show would be The Office of course.

All Hail the NEW 100 Grand with Coconut

So, I have been known to dispise the 100 Grand candy bar dispite it being my wife's favorite. The main reason is that it gives you a "sugar tooth". This is the term my friends and I used for when some kind of sugary confection (usually caramel or some sort of nougat), would get stuck in your tooth and actually cause a sugary pain--not a normal one, but a pain you can tell is the responsibility of refined sugar. I believe that that sugar is eating away at your tooth at this point and getting directly past the enamel and all. Kind of a root canal performed by Mr. Goodbar, DDS.

Along with such favorites as Sugar Babies, Charleston Chew, and Big Hunk, the 100 Grand is notorious for giving the sugar tooth due to its thick, sticky caramel. However, that is all changed now. A new version of the 100 Grand is out and the sticky caramel is replaced with toasted coconut and it kicks butt. So long sugar tooth. Hello coconut.

UPDATE:

For those of you wanting a humorous and thorough review of snack foods, check out WASAW: Writers and Artists Snacking at Work. Just don't be freaked out by the voice proclaiming, "Snacks" . . . you'll see.

Tea Time

It may be 9:50 in the morning, but here it's tea time. It is a chilly 6 degrees (F)--and that's up a bit from when I woke up. My feet are chilly, it's cold and blustery outside, but I have my peppermint herbal tea with (leftover from Christmastime) Peppermint Mocha Coffee-mate. Now, if only I weren't at work.

A Sack of Salt and a Broom!

Ya, a sack of salt and a broom. Don't know why I thought of this today, but in my family's Christmas tradition, we were never threatened with a lump of coal in our stocking if we were ill-behaved, naughty children. We were always threatened with a sack of salt and a broom.

Don't know where that came from. My mother's side was steeped in Dutch and Swedish tradition, so I figure it came from there somewhere as did most traditions I continue to carry forward. I can't even remember what the sack of salt and the broom were for. Evidently, cleaning up, and . . . um, preserving meats? Don't know. Perhaps one of my smart siblings or cousins knows from what tradition this springs and what they are given to naughty children for.

In any case, I will carry it on. I may not remember much about it, but it is cooler and different from the lump of coal that most kids are threatened with. Plus, how many traditions do you keep that you really understand? I thought so.

UPDATE:

Leave it to my brilliant cousin Beorn of Ravensmoon Replicas (shameless plug) to get me the answer and get it quick. In his own words:

" . . . the sack of salt and broomstick thing . . . Sack of salt, to wash out your dirty, dirty mouth. Broomstick, to spank your naughty rear end with. It's a Swedish thing."

There you have it. Perfect Old World scare tactics at their best. I love it. I'm sure you could still cure meats though with the salt.

Tall? Girl? Running?

For those of you have missed it, there is this great new blog out there by some girl who is hyper-fanatical about running and likes to rub everyone's nose in it. Especially those of us who are fat and lazy and don't give a crap about running (even though the Army makes us give a crap about it).

In any case, check it out. She's my sister-in-law and updates it much more often than I do this blog, so at least you'll have something to read during the 3 weeks or so it takes me to update.

I've linked it on my sidebar, so you can always find it from here. Oh, and I'm just kidding about what I said above Angie . . . the Army could NEVER make me give a crap about running. Also, you're not so tall.

Chesno Christmas 2006

Wow. Nothing about Christmas. Really? Hmmm. My favorite time of year and haven’t written a word.

That’s probably because I hate to see it go. Here it is the 10th of January. Christmas is two-and-a-half weeks in the can and I haven’t taken down my decorations yet—inside or out. I have pretty much stopped listening to Christmas music already though. That is a change as it usually plays in my car until about Valentine’s Day.

So, Christmas was great. The boy was excited like his father. A party every night from the 23rd-26th, our Swedish smorgasbord at Auntie Karin’s house, and seeing cousins, siblings, parents, in-laws, aunts, uncles, and even step-brothers and sisters. Almost couldn’t be more perfect.

We did have a change of heart though this year. It was funny because both my wife and I came upon it independently. We have spent 11 Christmases together as a married couple and not a single one of them in our own home. One year we didn’t even put up a tree (shudders). Next year (by which I mean this year), we are going to spend it at home. Not at home where we grew up. At home. Our home. We will still visit family and attend parties, and it would take another tour in Iraq to keep me from the smorgasbord, but Christmas will be in our own home this year.

New Blog?

I am currently tranferring this old blog into the new, improved format that Blogger had created for us. Hopefully it will be better, so stick with me while I make the changes.