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Merry Christmas, or you can just have a nice day if you’re not into the whole Christmas thing.

-us and the dogs and the chickens

The cookies keep on coming. My mom made gingerbread men (don’t have the recipe for that, maybe eventually I’ll add it) and I made a bunch of Bonbon Cookies. Mom had to make a bunch more of the Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels and chocolate-dipped stars (Again, linked recipe is not the actual cookies made, which were from a Mrs. Fields book; but it’s similar. I’ll get around to adding the Mrs. Fields one, I hope).

Yesterday I also prepped Good Eats Beef Stew for today when Scott and Jenna and EJ visit; also am working on a pot of soup in case they wanted lunch (probably not, but it will certainly work for my lunch :).

I love having time off; finally time to cook and bake.

What we’ve been doing for the past week and a half. Pergo, wall painting, new rug.

This is what a morning walk in December should look like.

The mutant pointsettia from Lowe’s. This is ONE plant.

I love how one minute it’s fall and Thanksgiving, next it snows overnight and it’s the Christmas season. Doesn’t hurt to watch ‘A Christmas Story’ after demolishing Thanksgiving dinner, either.

Xmas music 9hrs a day, playing from a radio outside to keep the predators off the chickens.

Kill me plz ;).

Erica got me a wrap box for xmas. I’ll be using it as the primary firewall/router here. It’s been kinda fun playing with a smallish box again, even though it’s still a pretty large embded linux install. Anyway i’m logging my suffering/patches for my own amusement WRAPInstall .

I tried doing it all via netboot, but that doesn’t work so well since once you put a partition table on it, tinybios REALLY wants to boot from it ;). I’ll have to take a look at that some day. I tried using GNAP and the gentoo live cd catalyst stuff too. But it’s all too much work (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa). Anyway buildroot is holding up so far, and it’s pretty easy to add/alter things to suit my evil plans.

Merry Christmas to all…and keep in mind, while you’re putting the Christ back in Christmas, that at one time a bunch of Romans were probably telling your religious forbears to “put the Sol back in Solstice” while opening their Saturnalia presents.

On an unrelated note:

“Now, most of you are probably going to be totally bored out of your minds on Christmas day, and here’s the perfect distraction. Test 2.6.15-rc7. All the stores will be closed, and there’s really nothing better to do in between meals. ” - Linus

First impressions of our new GE FL washer and dryer.

And now, very badly rhymed poetry.

Twas the night before wash day, and inside the house
The washer was leaky and sometimes too loud

The stockings were draped cross the basket in pairs
In hopes that the front loader soon would be there

The comforters nestled on top of the beds
While visions of king-size loads danced in our heads

And Paul in his short pants, and I in my coat
Had just gone gotten ready to walk near the moat

When in on my desk there started a ringing
I answered the phone; it was Home Depot pinging

Away with the pickup we drove like a flash
Took off the cover, and laid down our cash

The Christmas displays of the hardware and gadgets
Was nearly enough to keep us distracted

When what to our wondering eyes should appear
Our front loading washer and dryer came near

With the appliance guy pushing the boxes in sight
We knew we’d be doing some laundry tonight!

More rapid than eagles, to the front curb he came
And called other workers to help him by name–

Well really, he only called one to come help–
To lift heavy boxes with nary a yelp

To the side of the curb! To the back of the truck!
Now load them both in, ‘fore we run out of luck!

As dry leaves that before the wild leafblower fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, jump back toward your eye

So up to the hilltop we drove heading back
With truck bed all loaded; stopped once for a snack

And then, in a twinkling, we drove up the hill
Sliding on ice over dry glacial till

We stopped and unloaded the boxes on carts
And took off the packaging, checked all the parts;

They were clad all in metal with plastic controls
Electronic dials; big front-loading holes

A bundle of manuals was hidden inside
With samples of dryer sheets; also of Tide

The stainless steel wash tub–all dimpled with drains
Also the fins, so on clothing it rains…

The dryer contained a bright light and a rack
All the better for drying the things that go ‘clack’

The feet of the dryer we removed with a wrench
Moved onto the washer, which would serve as its bench

We shoved the stacked set to the back of the niche
After hooking up hoses and adjusting the pitch

They were tall and imposing, a rather high pair
And I laughed when I needed to climb up a stair

The click of some buttons and twist of a dial
Soon reassured me we’d wash in awhile

I spoke not a word but went straight to the door
Flinging in clothing so quickly it tore

And filling dispensers with plenty of soap,
I started the cycle, crossed my fingers with hope

That soon all the laundry would pass through them cleanly,
That both would consume electricity meanly,

Soon the washer was beeping, wet clothes inside lying
Happy washing to all, and it’s now time for drying!

. This gets my vote for best corporate holiday card this year. Thanks Crown Castle! (our cell tower tenants).

In other news, now that we have the space for a standard sized washer/dryer, we’ve ordered a new washer and dryer set from Home Depot (who, unlike Sears, weren’t dicks about trying to sell us something more expensive–and who offered a 10% discount if you opened a Home Depot charge, and will refund the delivery charge…). We arrived at that choice after reading various laundry forums here and here. Hopefully we’ll be washing comforters by Wednesday night!

I’ll admit it. I was heavily influenced by this endorsement from Alton Brown.

I’ve just finished addressing the last Christmas card on my list. If you don’t get one from us within the next week or so, this is what happened:

• My Treo ate your address and/or name off our card list
• We got a card from you after I sent out the mass of cards last year and never got around to putting your name on the list
• I took you off our list after not getting a card, but I later found the card from you wedged inside an EE Times/Pop Sci/Courier Journal/Scientific American/Newsweek/Time/New Scientist/Discover/American Rifleman/IEEE Spectrum/Archaeology/Smithsonian and forgot to re-add you to our list
• I put you on the card list but forgot to write down your postal address
• I have this vague idea that you might’ve moved but I can’t remember if the address in my Treo is the new address or old
• My card to you from last year returned (bad address), but the card you sent didn’t have a return address on it so I couldn’t update my Treo (always put your return address!)
• I have your address but couldn’t remember if we ever exchanged cards before
• Couldn’t keep track of who I was supposed to be snubbing this year, so just to be safe…
• Didn’t get a card one year and figured you were mad at us so…
• I ran out of cards
• Paul dropped it on the way to the mailbox

Actually, it wasn’t malicious. I probably just forgot. Send me a card with your return address on the envelope, and you will eventually get one, even if it does turn out to be 1) after New Years or 2) a previous year’s card (bet you don’t remember, anyway).