And We're Out of It

Maybe next year. But hey, it's snowing and I still get to watch the game tonight :)

Oh Tiki

Why are you so cruel? Tiki rushed for 234 yards and 3 touchdowns (two of which were more than 50 yards, meaning bonus points), bringing his season total to 5. Yes, he got more touchdowns tonight than he did in the first 15 games of the season (all of which I played him on my fantasy team). The Giants ended up beating Washington by 6, snapping a 7 game losing streak and basically ruining the Packers' chances. In addition to their own win, the following also needs to occur:

ARI win, DET win, MIA win, MIN win, SF win, CAR loss, HOU loss, TB loss.

So hope is slim. But if the stars align and all 10 games come out right tomorrow there will be another game this season.

In happier news, we had a wonderful "Christmas" day today with Jeff, Erin and Nancy. Everyone got a lot of fun presents, then we enjoyed a delicious lunch using all my new wedding china:

All that present excitement!
(make this one big to get the joke)


All dressed up and ready for ham

After lunch, we taught Nancy to play Ticket To Ride and the girls went shoe shopping while the guys hung a new light fixture in the kitchen (typical, I know). But I am very happy to no longer have a gloomy dungeon kitchen:

It's so contemporary!! Only three more 70s fixtures to go...

Leftovers for dinner, then a viewing of Nick's new movie, A Prairie Home Companion, which I would only recommend if you are a fan of both Garrison Keillor and Midwestern humor. My favorite bit was "Bad Jokes, Lord, I Love 'Em", but that probably has something to do with the fact that John C Reilly (yes, Rob, of Shake and Bake fame) was singing.

So that's Christmas. Again, it was a wonderful day with far more than I wrote about here, but there's no reason to bore all of you out there in blogland. Nick and I are truely blessed this year :)

Zyzzyva

Tonight we had our friend Bob over. After going out for pizza at Angeno's, we came back here and played three rounds of Ticket to Ride. It's a very interesting strategy game with 3 players - you don't really need to block anyone on purpose, it just happens naturally! During the third game, I did block Bob after he screwed up (thought two routes were just one longer route) but I figured it was fair because he already understood the game. My loss-less streak was ended tonight but it all worked out pretty well - we each won one game (and my victory was very decisive!). After deciding it was a fair place to stop we pulled out the Scrabble board. Bob was a little hesitant at first, as he hadn't played in a long time, but he slowly warmed up and even came close to winning - too bad the last letter he picked up was a "J"!!

The game queen and her parents have just arrived as I was typing the above paragraph so I'm sure there will be many more games before the weekend is over :)

Nick is a Poker Superstar

Yes, Nick achieved the poker exacta tonight - he won both games! Just normal poker tonight (Hold 'Em). After he made me the first out in the second game (A-4 off-suit hit an A on the turn to beat my cowboys) I tried out Guitar Hero for the first time. After I figured out what I was doing I manged to beat 20,000, the lowest built-in top score in easy mode so I was pretty satisfied with that.

Christmas In Wisconsin

Nick and I had a great time in Wisconsin. We drove down Sunday morning, stopping at Smokey's Bar and Grill in Abbotsford for lunch. We normally stop at the gas station next door and eat either Subway or Hardee's but decided to try the the bar and grill in order to catch some halftime highlights. The food was excellent and we got to see an awesome touchdown pass from Kitna to Furrey - too bad the Lions couldn't hang on to win it!

We spent Christmas Eve at my sister Jill's house, followed by an 11 o'clock service at the church I grew up in. I ran into an old friend of mine from confirmation class, I think it's been about 8 years since I've seen her! She has a master's degree in theatre now and is living in London - how fun is that?

Christmas Day was our big day. We started off at my dad's house, watching the kids open their presents and getting a few ourselves. We built an art easel for my little sister and had some fun with my step-brother's new Nerf gun. He set up his giant (2 ft) Shrek doll on top of a toybox and we took turns trying to shoot him down. He was a little upset when I hit Shrek before he did, but he snuck off to practice while the rest of us ate dessert and ended up winning the afternoon shoot-off in four shots (first one to knock Shrek down 3 times won. Nick and I got him down twice each).

From there we swung by Sandy's house and helped her and Bob make a puzzle that she was planning on selling on eBay. Next we drove out to the country for my stepmom's family Christmas before heading back into town for a few games of cards with my grandparents. What a full day!

Tuesday we took it much easier, just drove up to visit my other grandparents and headed home from there. I didn't put a lot of detail in this post, but we had a wonderful time everywhere we went. It was so nice to see everyone! Of course, we got many, many nice presents. So far we've used one of our new games the most - it's called Ticket to Ride and involves building the most trains across the United States (Karin is 4-0). It's very simple and best of all, we can play it with only two players, unlike most of our other favorites.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday as well. Merry Christmas!

With Love from the NFL

We got back from Green Bay today and a wonderful headline greeted me when I opened up Firefox - NBC moves Pack-Bears finale to prime time. This means I can easily watch the game from the comfort of my own home since the original kick-off time was the same as when the Vikings are playing. Even better - Nancy and Jeff and Erin don't have to get dragged off to a bar to watch the game with me. Nick is thrilled because he thinks the NBC team (John Madden and Al Michaels) does the best job of announcing. What a great way to spend New Year's Eve!!

I don't think it's likely, but here is the playoff scenario from NFL.com:

Green Bay can clinch playoff berth with:

1) GB win + NYG win + GB clinches strength of victory tiebreaker over NYG, OR
2) GB win + NYG loss or tie + STL loss or tie, OR
3) GB win + NYG loss or tie + CAR win, OR
4) GB win + NYG loss or tie + ATL win, OR
5) GB tie + NYG loss + STL loss + ATL loss or tie + CAR loss or tie

Our Christmas

Nick and I celebrated Christmas at home today. We slept in, opened presents, and then sat around all day playing with our new presents. Here's a picture to demonstrate what went on before we starting making a new puzzle Nick got:

The Lincoln Log cabin is no match for the ferocious raptor!!!

In the evening, we decided to go bowling. We paid for an hour and managed to squeeze five games each in (it goes pretty fast when there's only two people going!). I picked up an 8-10 split. I know that's not quite as cool as a 7-10 split, but I was pretty impressed because I hit the 8 pin perfectly into the 10 pin and knocked it over. I also destroyed my old high score: I improved from 152 to 164. Actually, 4 of my 5 games were over 100 and the last game was the one I did the best in. We haven't been bowling for a couple of months and I think the rest did me well :)

Thursday Night Fun

Tonight was our "non-traditional" poker night. We had it at our house in the basement in front of the TV for one thing. We sat carefully arranged around the table so that everyone could easily view the TV and watch the Packers sloppily beat the Vikings (almost as bad as the Detroit game was on Sunday but at least we have three straight wins!). Also odd was the fact that we had 10 players and a full half of them were girls (Katie and I were joined by Andrea, Heidi and Marsha) and that we didn't play a single game of Hold'Em. Instead we played two $5 - first Crazy Pineapple and then Omaha. Andrea won the former and Jeff the latter, but Nick and I did pretty well too and came out ahead on the evening. Not so weird, but also of note, that despite winter finally arriving today (freezing cold giving way to almost balmy temperatures the past week to real live snow at last!) Nick grilled giant 1/4 pound hot dogs for all to enjoy.

For anyone who's been wondering, my fantasy teams could not withstand the 1-2-3 punch of Gore-Westbrook-Graham (yes, both my opponents had 3 of the same players) and I ended up losing both semi-final games. The wedding must have affected my coaching - this is the first year I have not made a Superbowl appearance. At least it was fun :)

And now...it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!! All the presents are wrapped, the house is clean, and the cards (we've gotten about 20 this week) are proudly displayed. I can't believe tomorrow we'll be opening presents all ready! Merry Christmas (in case I don't blog again before the holiday)!!

What Happened

We ended up going to The Fieldhouse, a sports bar which is normally full of Vikings fans but which was curiously empty of them today. The sloppy play of the Packers-Lions continued, but the Packers came out on top, 17-9. As for my fantasy playoffs, it looks like I will win one and lose one right now but there's still a lot of football to be played. Now it's time to clean up a little bit more before we settle in for the late game and an IKEA-packaging burning party!

Gameday Blues

It's Sunday again and the Packers are playing Detroit. Unfortunately, I live in Minneapolis. Most of the time I like Minnesota, but in this one regard I wish I lived back at home: football. Today the Vikings are playing the Jets on CBS so that is the only game. FOX has been regulated to show infomercials because heaven forbid we actually watch another NFC North game on regular TV at the same time as the Vikings are playing (granted this is an NFL rule, not a Minneapolis thing, but I still don't have to like it). Maybe next year we'll switch to a dish so we can get NFL Sunday ticket, but right now we are stuck either watching online and waiting for gamebreaks or going out to a bar and enduring the taunts of Vikings fans. Right now I am monitoring the game online (3-3), enjoying the sacks and interceptions by the Packers and morning those of the Lions (not that they have sacks) as Nick and I try to decide where to go to get the least amount of flack. So that's what's causing my gameday blues.

What's Going On

Christmas is getting closer! This was the week of holiday goodness through work. On Wednesday, both Nick and I (and Marsha and many others I'm sure) received a free holiday lunch at work. Thursday was my work holiday party. We all got to take off early for hors d'oeuvre and drinks at the golf club. On Friday, Nick and I both attended his work holiday party (mine was employee-only). We got dressed up (seriously, the men wore suits and the women wore evening gowns and I was told this was a step down from previous celebrations) and headed down to my old stomping grounds, the U of M campus. There we enjoyed a delicious dinner and a couple of hours of casino games. We cashed out when the casino closed, exchanging our chips for raffle tickets, but were unable to win any prizes.

At home everything is almost ready for Christmas too (no need to be politically correct once we're in the private sector). I'm all but done with the shopping and have 90% of the presents wrapped - I'll be finishing that up tomorrow. We got our Christmas cards out at the beginning of this week and are starting to get some in from our friends and family. Nick and I spent the day cleaning and shopping, then went out to see a movie at the dollar theatre - The Prestige. It was a very interesting movie, I don't think I really liked it though. It had a lot of twists and turns, none of which ever really developed into anything even remotely possible.

But enough of that - here's what you really come here for - the pictures!

Nick made this gingerbread house while I was making cookies last weekend.


O-Ball Production


Where I hung my Christmas cards this year. Note that they are on a plane which should not be affected by any coffee explosions :)


Wrapped Presents (Almost Done!)


This picture isn't related to Christmas - it's my new scrapbooking cabinet! Or at least it will be once I get around to moving all my stuff inside the bottom. Until then it's just holding all of the stuff for the thank you cards I'm still working on.

And as a final note: GO PACKERS!!!

And There It Is

The "lost" post from yesterday finally bounced back to my email address so I have reinstated it on my blog. I don't know why remote posting isn't working, but I am sure the Google Engineers are aware of the problem.

In other news, I am in the playoffs in two of my three fantasy football leagues. All I have to do is win this week and I am guaranteed money next week :) Go me!!

And in case you are wondering, I did recieve the errant work package yesterday afternoon. Yay!

Spice (Or Why Getting Packages is Tough in Minnesota)

The bitter cold of last week has given way to warm weather and rain here. I almost wish it would be a little colder so we could get some snow. I know the guys wish it was a little colder so that they could get their ice house out on the lake, but as it's going that doesn't look like a possibility any time soon.

Anyway, to relate to my subject, there seems to be a general breakdown in the ability of the various package delivery services to accurately deliver packages. I would blame the fact that it's almost Christmas, but the problem doesn't seem to be in the length of transit time; rather, they seem to have trouble making it to me. And before you think I'm being unfair to any one agency, I've had a problem with USPS, FedEx and UPS. Nothing with DHL, but then again I haven't received a package via them so I can't judge.

As some of you may recall, a few weeks ago Erin's Christmas present was delivered to a home two blocks away from us with the same house number. Last night about 9:30 there was a knock on our door - a guy (I presume a neighbor from somewhere nearby although I didn't recognize him. And 9:30 isn't too late - we didn't get home from tennis until about 9 so if he tried earlier we weren't home) gave me my dad's Christmas present and explained it had been left on his porch. Oddly, a third package wasn't delivered at all. I ordered some books at work and had them delivered to my office, which always has someone in it. They attempted to deliver it at noon on Saturday and left me the message "recipient not at home." I have no clue what actually happened to the package and why it wasn't left with the rest of the mail. It's not like the company doesn't receive mail every weekend!

And the final story: when we were baking our delicious cookies on Saturday morning, Katie looked out the window and asked "Karin, did you order anything from FedEx?" I said no and she replied "Well, there's a FedEx truck backing up your driveway." I went down and spoke to the driver who told me we had 5 large packages and asked where I wanted them. Knowing that Erin had shipped some things up here, I told him to just place them in the front hallway. He brought in the first box - hubcaps! The next box was identical and hubcaps just didn't seem like anything Erin (or Nick) would order. So I checked the label - they were intended for the previous owner of the house. All I can say to that is thank goodness I was home so that I could have the driver taken them away instead of dealing with that headache later on.

So it's up to you to decide: is it the season or the delivery drivers?

I am In Love

With my new KitchenAid mixer :) We had plans this morning to do a cookie bake, but I couldn't wait so I decided to make just one batch last night (peanut butter blossoms). It was so easy I decided to make the batter for the Cinnamon Polar Bears before I went to bed (mind, it was about midnight at the time). I got up this morning and whipped up the sugar cookie batter...how did I ever cook before???

I think this is all the cookies for this weekend, but I am going to be baking a lot more in the future. The KitchenAid has been teaching me well. I found out it's possible to make a flour explosion even with the splashguard on, which I wouldn't have believed. Anyway, back to my kitchen, but if you're on the fence about getting one I say "go for it!" And that's the end of this commercial.

Bacos Did It!!

We won all 3 games. I was even the All-Heart player, serving us from a 4-7 hole to a 12-7 lead, then making the final hit that won the game for us when it was 24-20. Everyone played very well though, we only allowed 10 points in each of the first games. GO BACOS!!

Another Disappointing Loss

Another game in Lambeau Field, another loss. The first half was just terrible, Cindy and Ryan even left at halftime. Luckily the second half was much better for the Packers and while they didn't win, at least it was more bearable to watch.

The first part of the weekend (Saturday), was a ton of fun. Dave's flight to Michigan was cancelled so he ended up tagging along with us to Green Bay. We stayed at Geoff and Kristen's new house and played some games and got to know baby Lily a little bit better. Marsha came up and we all went out to eat at Kroll's followed by a 3-way game of Cranium. We randomly chose teams and it ended up being Geoff and Dave vs Kristen and Nick vs Marsha and me. Marsha and I had a huge lead at the beginning, but Nick and Kristen made a great run at the end and were within one card of winning. They were not successful though :) Geoff and Dave were so far back that we decided that you have to be a pair of former roommates to succeed!

Guess there's not much more to say other than GO BACOs and "Happy Birthday Adam!"