Christmas is Here

It seems to have snuck up on me this year, but today is that last day of work, it is December 23rd and my shopping time has all but run out. Although I have purchased the bulk of my gifts, I still have two gifts to purchase. Two of my closest friends and their wives. I am just not sure what to get them this year, although I am thinking Menards giftcards for both of them. I really hate gift cards cause they are so impersonal. Although some people it is needed because they have everything. I am kind of like that myself. Giftcards from Menards, Home Depot or BestBuy would be great for me this year as I still have a few things to get for the house. The biggest thing I think I need right now is a toaster. I did ask for one for Christmas so we will see if Santa brings me one!

Dancers

I have a way with dancers, for some reason, they seem to attach themselves to me. I have gotten to know a certain girl at the local dollar store, I sat with her at the bar on Saturday and drank. She decided that I needed to hang out with her on New Years Eve. She told me that she is dancing at the Cockatoo and she said that I should come down to her house, and we would drive together to Yankton and then she would have me crash at her place. I am not sure how to take this? I have dated quite a few dancers, and never had a relationship work out. But that is true with the regular, non dancer girls as well. I am just not sure how I want to deal with this situation. Although it could be fun.

Sitting out sucks

Tuesday night is the night for darts. Our sub needed his last week in before the end of December. Yesterday was the last night we play in December. I had not sat out this season. I hate to sit. I find it very difficult to watch my team play without playing. I am the captain. I sat last night. The team one 8 - 5 without me, but it seemed like I could have made this tally higher. They struggled with outs, four to five turns to take a game out happened at least three games. I was ready to leave, but stuck it out. One of my players challanged me to some games after they were finished. After 5 games, I had 4 wins to his one. I really should have played last night.

Winter is here!

Unfortunately winter appears to be here. Yesterday I came into work early, It was cold but dry. I got here about 7:05. At 8AM I was still the only one in for our area. I have three others that share our office. I wondered if they were all sick. About 10 after 8 my boss walked in and said that the roads were terrible. Freezing rain had apparently started since I had gotten to work. A few about 5 - 10 minutes spanned between the next two guys coming in. They both had road stories. I left for lunch about 10 minutes beforee noon yesterday. Pulling out of the parking lot, my Expedition decided to break loose and fishtail it self around. After regaining control, I put the truck in AWD, it had been there before, but never for a serious reason. Leaving work last night was fairly clear as it had warmed up quite nicely. Last night however, the wind was fierce, I could hear it howling through the trees. This morning when I got up and looked out the window, there was a light dusting of snow on the ground. It was the first visable snow that we have had all year. The first day of winter.

Surround Sound

Friday night was not as uneventful as I let on in the previous post. I did go out to Ulitmate Electronics and purchase my Infinity speakers for my home theater. I spent about an hour and a half connecting all of my componenets. It sounds really great though.

Short Weekend

It was two days last time I checked, but it surley didn't seem like it. I started off the weekend on Friday by staying home cause I still was not feeling up to par. I watched some TV and hung out. I got up early Saturday afternoon, and got my hair cut and found some grub. I then decided to deliver mail to the ex owner of my house. I did that about 4:30 PM and got home sometime after midnight. I woke up about noon on Sunday, to find that I had no water. It got very cold and someone had moved my cover off my water inlet. I was slightly pissed. I think I need to check my heat tape as I am not sure that it is working properly. I might have to run to Menard's tonight and get another strip and some additional insulation. I would like this to never happen again.

Living

I think that I need to re-arrange the living room as I am not quite satisfied with the way I have it setup. I am thinking that I need to change the positions of the couch and my TV. This is not too big of a thing, but it will be somewhat of a nuiscence. I think that the TV in the cornere away from the front door and closet will probably be safer. I will move this around and see how I like it, hey I can always move it back.

MIA

I have been MIA for the last two days. I have had some kind of black plauge that made me go sleepy for the last two days. I probably had more sleep in the last two days, the I usually get in a whole week. Anyways, if anyone missed me or even reads this. I am back.

Home and Setup

Joy!
I brought home my new Samsung 47 in TV last night. Got it in the house and setup. Man I love it. The picture is great, clear and bright. I am not sure how I ever managed with a small TV for the last 30 years. My cable and internet is going in today, however MidCo tells me that they might not have a HD technician available to install, they are working on it. When I called last week and ordered the service, the snag told me that if I did not have the HD tv already that she would not order the service for me. I told her that I would have the TV before they were scheduled to install. I called MidCo to check and see if she put it on or not, she didn't. Well atleast the girl I was working with was nice and is going to try and get this taken care of so that I can have HD, if not they will have to install plain digital and come back later to install the HD. Atleast I am going to get a HD DVR, although I am not sure the it records in HD??? I will know fairly soon I guess. I am taking half a day off from work, as I need to run to the old house and get my computer and Sony receiver and networked DVD player. Man I am stoked. Just watching Spiderman last night on it made me all warm and tingly. I can't wait to get the HD channels going so I can see what I hear I have been missing.

Tonight's the night

I am thinking that the trip to Sam's Club will be great tonight. I already took care of the preliminaries with a trip to BestBuy over lunch, I purchased my Optical and composite cables to connect my receiver, DVD and such. The TV is listed at like 143 pounds, so moving will not be that bad. However deciding where I want to have it will be the issue. I have thought about putting it at the end of the house, or the East wall. Either would be an acceptable place, If I put it on the North wall, I will have to have a couch on the south side of the living room between the kitchen. I really like to leave couches and such next to walls. I will have to ask and see what other people think and then make my decision. I am still leaning towards putting it in the South East corner of the room, Maybe on a bit of a diagonal. We shall see.

Weekend from Hell

Well, normally I am up for a weekend. But after the last three days, I almost wish I was at work. It all started out on Friday night. We were going out partying and got off to a slow start, didn't get out until after 10PM, no big deal. Got to the ballet and talked to a friend I know, and she told me some news that I didn't want to hear. I have not confirmed this to be true, but I have no reason to doubt her word. If this is true, it might be the straw that breaks the camels back on a friendship that I have had for some time. Other issues on Friday night made the night less then enjoyable as well. I will not get into those issues on here. If you know me, you know what that was. Saturday, I slept in late because I did imbide heavily the night before. I got up and started to work on the house. I am getting very close to completing it. As of now, I need to stretch my carpet that I have installed and put down the linoleum in the kitchen and laundry room. I still have to paint the kitchen. Sunday brought the worst day of my weekend. I don't think that my so called relationship is now over. I haven't told her yet, but there is only one thing that I told her not to do. Well she did it. This morning at work is not making thoughts of the weekend dissapear. Hopefully I can get my TV tonight and into the living room as my cable is getting installed tomorrow.

Household goods

After doing laundry, I realized that I wanted to hang up my cloths in the closet to aid in keeping them from wrinkling. I decided that I needed hangers as I have some at the old house, but you can never have enough. I decided to make a trip to K-Mart because it is close to my house, and because Wal-Mart is a three ring circus with a sideshow of freaks most of the time, and 50 times worse during the holidays. I walked into the store with good intentions of purchasing hangers and maybe a few other odds and ends, I was also out of Coke. However, I happened down the cookware isle and found a nice skillet, this skillet had a matching set of cookware. Nice stainless steel with copperclad bottom, these went into the cart. If I was getting pots and pans, I figured I might as well get some cooking implements. Collander, tongs, slotted spoon, non slotted spoon, and spatula. I however forgot to get a ladle, so I will have to avoid making soup or stew until I do. I then found a nice folding canvas two section hamper. I did need that to keep the laundry in check. That went in the cart also. What did I come for? oh yeah, hangers, ohh I need silverware, I got 12 each of forks, knives and spoons. Ohh, I don't want to use those yet. I got a couple boxes of paper plates and plastic utensils and cups also. What did I come for here again? I did not get regular plates yet, I will have to find them later. As I started walking to where I thought that the hangers were, I realized that I needed another garbage can. I found a nice one with swinging lid. Back on search for hangers. I finally found the hangers and picked up two thirty packs. Checking out my little trip for hangers to hangup my laundry cost me almost $300. But the cookware is all stainless steel so I should never have to replace it as long as I live.

Testing Emailing Blog

I figured I would test out the ability to email my
blog in. As it seems that Blogger is running slower
then normal, this might be easier then waiting for
their screens to load. I will test this out. Also, I
am going to look into adding some pictures to spice up
the place a little bit.



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today!
http://my.yahoo.com

Six Gun

I made my first trip to the Sportsmans warehouse. I was looking for a new pair of insulated hunting boots, my boots have seen better days. After being very dissapointed in the selection of boot that they had available, Chris and I moved back to the artillery section to look at the glorious firearms. I started the night by looking at lever action 30/30's, then on to AR15's and some other assorted rifles. I began to mull over buying the Winchester 30/30 and a nice looking 1911 style 45ACP caught my eye. I love the way these large frame semi autos look, but I have never been able to find one that feels proper in my hand. I am not sure what it is. I ended up getting a Taurus 45ACP that is very close to the 1911. I love the feel of that gun. Anyway, after looking at that, and a few other assorted semi's, a beautiful Ruger 45 Long Colt, chrome with white acrylic grips. I saw this fine piece of steel and of course I had to check this out. It was perfect. I looked at other 45LC's but for some reason I was drawn to this one. I was thinking about getting two but they only had the one. Of course I filled out the paperwork and took it with me. I love it. I also got a leg holster and some ammunition. I went over lunch to my firing range and put 50 rounds through it. It has a little kick to the hand, but is very smooth and appears accurate and easy to control, at least at the distance I was shooting. about 10 - 15 yards. Did I mention I love it??

Smoes on Smoes

Last night we had the battle of the bar. The two Smoes teams played each other for the bar bragging rights. This was the second time that we played them this year. We beat them the first meeting, I believe 10 - 3. One of our old team mates, who jumped ship before last season because he thought that he would get on a team that could win. Last year we won our league, the city championship, and we won our pod at State. We did not take state last year however. His team won the City in their league, Eric and myself subbed on the team for the tournament and we both have jackets. Anyway, with a bottle of Rumplemintz looming as the travelling trophy, my team went to work. We proceded to destroy the girls with a final tally of 11 - 2. Getting an even better win then last time. I think that in the last three years, they have only beaten us 1 time by 1 game. My team finished first in the first half, and we are sitting at 21 - 5 after the first two weeks in the second half. I hate to predict this early, but if I was to guess, I would say we have another league in the bag. Even if we tank the rest of the second half, because we already won the first, we will force a playoff with anyone that might have more wins then we do.

Laundry

I setup the washer and dryer last night as I needed to do laundry. I did not feel like packing up a bag and taking it to the old place. I do not have my linoleum down yet in the laundry room, but decided that I would be wise to get the large chunk I need for the kitchen off the roll. I should have a nice sized piece left for the hall and laundry room. The way I was going to do it would have probably left me without enough running sheet left.

46 IN TV

I am quite dissappointed, in the fact that I was too slow to act. Sears and BestBuy both had the Toshiba 46 inch projection TV that I want to own on sale for $999. I was not smart enough to go and get it at either place. The TV is now back to its' regular price of $1399. I have located it for $1299 and might have to bite the bullet and pay the extra $300. I guess it is the price you pay for being slow to act. With moving into the new place, I just feel that my current 20 inch Toshiba in my room will not be a good living room set. I think I will have to bite the $300 bullet at some point.

Christmas shopping

To me Christmas shopping is an art, wait until the absolute last minute, December 23rd - 24th window. Then go to a one or two stores and walk through the aisles until something cool pops out and you take it. Wal-Mart and K-Mart usually work wonders for this, maybe BestBuy and Radioshack if you need electronics. My art was destroyed yesterday as I finished 75% of my shopping. Maria decided that she wanted to help me with the shopping and that it was a travesty that I would wait until the last minute. I told her that pressure is my best friend. She didn't seem to find the humor in that. It was actually kind of nice this year because she could help decide what I should get for the little girls on my list. I do not have the mind of a little girl, so they tend to get gifts that either bouys or girls would appreciate. ( mostly me, LOL ) I think I am going to get two family type gifts for my two friends and their wifes. Plus I know what I am going to get Maria, but I have to go and pick it up. I think I will wait to do that until Christmas Eve so I can have a little pressure!!

New Camera Phone

Last week I purchased a Motorola V710 to replace my LG VX6000. I am not sure that I like the change. The LG was a great phone and the camera, although lower in the mega pixel range, has so much better picture quality. The pictures on the allegedly rated 1.3 MP Motorola is poor at best. Very grainy and you almost need to have sunlight to capture a good picture. As far as the phone, with bluetooth enabled I still get over two days of battery life. Reception is fair although I have only used it out of town once. I do like the fact that I can now use actaul MP3's for ringtones. Although it seemed yesterday that I have the phone on vibrate and the phone rang yesterday afternoon from one set to a specific ringtone. I have slightly less then a week to make my decision to keep this phone or trade it for the LG VX7000.

Darts

If you don't know, I am a league dart shooter. I have been on the same team for 4 years. We have had some personel changes but we have always been a team to recon with. Last year we won our Leauge title and the city tournament. State however has eluded me since I started shooting darts. I finished fifth in singles last year, doubles was hardly worth mentioning and team we took first in our pod and division but got beat in the third and fourth round of bracket play. This year, I hope to change that. I still expect us to take the city titles, as we just clinched the first half for league. But state. I feel that the team I have put together this year will be the one to get through the state bracket and bring us home the first place trophy. Here's to many hat tricks to come.

Women

I don't think I will ever understand the fairer sex. You think you are doing something right, but then it blows up in your face.

Blogging

I have read a number of blog for quite some time. I finally decided to take the plunge. I have had a TextAmerica account for over a year and have kept a somewhat photo blog of the life of Bignorm, but it seems like a chore to remember to take pictures with my camera phone. Hard to believe that you forget that you have one. So I will try to put my life in type instead, and I guess with the photo blog.

Bignorm_99's Blog

Welcome to my blog. Hopefully I can keep you riveted to your seats over my gripping daily life.