Mountains

Hard to see here, but our local mountains have been covered with snow since the rain storms came through this last week. I think there is less snow today than there was a few days ago, but still very nice. I just had to stop and take a photo. These mountains about two hours away. Click on the picture for a closer look.

Christmas gifts

Just thought I might share some of the things people gave me this year for Christmas.

• U-Verse - assuming I can get it hooked up.
• Black Sweater suitable for work
  
• Gaming mat
• Recharging cade for cell-phones and electronic devices.
• $25 Starbucks gift card
• $100 visa gift card
  

I probably have forgotten a few things, so will amend the list as I go. This doesn't include items given to both my wife and I.

7 Random things about me...

OK, I got tagged to talk about 7 random things about me that you may not know. I've been putting off doing this because of item number one below, which you may already know by now.

1) I don't care to play games, or at least board games. I usually blame this on an over competitive step father. Watching my daughter take on the same trait makes me think it may be more genetic than I give it credit for. I am not competitive by nature, though I strive for improving my own performance all the time. I ran cross country in high school, always knew that I would never be first, and only worried about my time as compared to the last race.

2) At one time in my life I could count 11 people that I considered grandparents. My father passed away when I was young and my mother re-married. All of my grandparents, including the step grandparents had divorced and re-married.

3) I've had a long time fondness of ice cream. I've been making my own for years. If it's store bought, I only settle for Breyers which is all natural and has a home made taste to me. Egg nog ice cream is a family tradition now. I always go for the odd-ball flavor that I haven't had before. My favorite flavor is... The one I haven't tried.

4) I like trying new food. I'll try anything that other people would voluntarily eat if given the choice. I haven't had to put that to any real test though, as I have not had to eat bugs or anything too odd yet. On the other hand, my wife says I am a picky eater. Once I find something I like, I usually like it prepared a certain way. Oh well. I'd like some good Italian food - hint, hint.

5) I have two moles on my stomach. This runs in my fathers family and has gone back at least 4 generations that I've heard of. Maybe too much information??

6) I'm a native Californian, and have lived most of my life within 10 miles of my birthplace - Buena Park. I spent about 6 months living in New Mexico when I was in first grade. My wife claims that most of my child hood stories center around that short period in my life. Have I mentioned that I walked up hill to school through the snow both directions? The only time I've been out of the country is just across the border to Mexico; not even a passport required.

7) I am of Hawaiian ancestry. I've studied the family genealogy and have determined that I am just a smidgen under a quarter Hawaiian. My father was half Hawaiian, as were his parents. I have lots of other stuff in me, and otherwise refer to myself as a "Poi dog", all mixed up. My ancestry actually goes back to some fairly important Hawaiian families with associations to the royal family. Pretty neat to look at events so recent in history.

Ok, those are done. I have no plans to tag anyone else, as that smacks too much of playing a game. On the other hand, if you want to be tagged by me, drop me a note. I'll edit this post to include your name and a link to your blog entry.

Christmas Tree

Here is a photo of our Christmas tree. We just finished wrapping all the gifts and the only thing missing will be delivered on Christmas eve. We are expecting guests on Christmas morning who will be bringing more, but for now our tree is complete.

Changing ISP

I plan to call my ISP today and cancel service so that I can switch to a new ISP. I have a bad feeling about this. I was told that I would probably be without Internet access for about a week. I expect it may be longer. Not sure what I'll do without Internet. I will have access from work next week, but have the week of Christmas off. I'm trying to minimize the impact on our homeschooling that makes use of the Internet for online courses. Well, here goes.

Update: Our current service will be terminated on 12/24. We will get to keep our current e-mail addresses for 2 months. We cannot get the new service activated until after the old is actually terminated, so if we are not disconnected on 12/24 during the day, then I assume we'll have to call on 12/26. Installation is supposed to be scheduled within 7 days of the call.

In the mean while, I am trying to arrange an alternate connection for the down time. We'll see how that works. I really do not want to be down.

LAX airport

This morning I got up at 4:00 AM so that I could take my friend Matthew to LAX airport. Matthew's parents are missionaries in Papua New Guinea where they do translation work to bring the Gospel to the native peoples. Matthew spent most of his youth in Papua New Guinea, so he is very familiar with the land and it's people. He will be spending two weeks there and come back right after the new year. His brother and sister are meeting up with him on one of the legs of the flight so they will be flying over together. The church that sponsors his parents work had set aside money for his parents to come to the States during the holidays, but instead that money was used to reduce the cost of Matthew and his siblings to go visit.

Christmas Breakfast

I took my co-workers to breakfast this morning. We went to Mimi's Cafe. I like it there, but it's been at least three years since we have gone. Last year got hectic and we didn't go out until around June. The year before that we were informed that we could not do breakfast, so had to find a place for lunch instead.

I had the "Pain Perdue" which is french toast stuffed with marmalade and cream cheese, topped with a glob of butter and syrup. It included two sausages and two eggs (I had them over easy) and a batch of season potatoes. It also included a juice, and I chose cranberry. I ordered a mug of hot cocoa before breakfast and had coffee afterward. I am not sure what they do, but their hot cocoa is particularly good. One of my co-workers is on a special diet, and when he asked what I had ordered, I told him "sugar and fat". All in all, quite decadent.

I bought them all a gift card to Blockbuster and included a package of red vines. My wife had the cute idea of using raffia to tie it all together, and I thought it looked great. She was not so happy with the way it turned out.

They collected up and gave me a very generous gift. They included a $25 gift card to Starbucks. I love getting out of the house and away from the kids for a little time with my wife, and we like to sit and relax in the local Starbucks for our "dates". I had already gotten ahold of a $20 card from our section party, so we should be set through the holidays with plenty of outings and time together. They also gave me a $100 American Express gift card, so I need to figure out what I will spend that on. I've been talking about a Quad Core CPU and motherboard for about a year now, but haven't managed to go out and buy one. Maybe I'll wait for the iCore 7 chip to come down in price. I'm sure I NEED all that processing power, though I haven't figured out why yet.