It's Down!

The Xmas tree is down thanks to Needles working on it while I was at work. I have to admit that I am surprised that it wasn't knocked over at least once by our furry housemates. Tomorrow we are leaving for the promise land and hopefully a nice visit with Cynical and Ragged while we are down there. We will return on the first of the new year, so this will be my final post of 2006. Goodbye 2006. I can't say that I am gonna miss you because you sucked. The year has seemed to be plagued with family members having health issues. I hope that 2007 is much better. See ya next year.

PS. 2006 don't let the door hit ya in the back side...

I'm Seeing 20/20.

I have been going to the Optometrist the last 3 weeks for eye exam, glasses, and contacts. The first visit was an eye exam , fit for contacts and pick out frames. The second visit was a 1 week check on contacts followed by another pair of contacts and wait another week. Today I had went in for the final visit which consisted of dilation of eyes and ordering my new contacts. My total for new glasses, 4 boxes of contacts and a very thorough eye exam....with insurance $290.00. I am not sure if I am seeing a whole lot better but my wallet is a bit lighter. As some has lsited there Xmas talley, so here it goes.

Gun cabinet

2 wheeled furniture dolly

Motorcycle lighter

Star Wars ornament

Mug and saucer

Curious George stuffed animal

Candys and cookies

Gift cards (Borders, Appleby's, Bass Pro, Wal-Mart)

Camoflauge fleece blanket

Spice rack

Battery checker

2 geocoins

Money soap

Scratch off lottery tickets

Really I wasn't that good this year. I think Santa got his naughty and nice books mixed up.

On Christmas Day, On Christmas Day.

Today is Christmas and we have returned from Needles Moms and from Rudy's family. I made out like a bandit down at L's house. We ate like kings. Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green beans and squash pie........heavenly. Let's just say after two helpings I was miserable, but miserable in a good way. We returned home to find out that our 2 fuzzy prisoners broke out of their prison of the back room. Tugger nestled under the Christmas tree and Cooper was hemmed up behind the recliner. I vow that when we go to the promise land next weekend.....They will NOT get out! After we returned from L's house and went to Rudy's to see all the stuff that Santa left for them. When we left there the neighbors down the street left a platter full of fudge and cookies in our truck which we quickly went home and started in on the yummy delights. I ate half of the pecan log as soon as I walked in the door and chased it with a glass of milk. I am now miserable again in a good way. I need a nap. Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

We are leaving for Needles Moms tomorrow and wont be back until Christmas day, so I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

IT"S A XMAS MIRACLE!

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Flora, a pregnant Komodo dragon living in a British zoo, is expecting eight babies in what scientists said on Wednesday could be a Christmas virgin birth.
Flora has never mated, or even mixed, with a male dragon, and fertilized all the eggs herself, a process culminating in parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. Other lizards do this, but scientists only recently found that Komodo dragons do too.
"Nobody in their wildest dreams expected this. But you have a female dragon on her own. She produces a clutch of eggs and those eggs turn out to be fertile. It is nature finding a way," Kevin Buley of Chester Zoo in England said in an interview.
He said the incubating eggs could hatch around Christmas.
Parthenogenesis has occurred in other lizard species, but Buley and his team said this was the first time it has been shown in Komodo dragons -- the world's largest lizards.
Scientists at Liverpool University in northern England discovered Flora had had no male help after doing genetic tests on three eggs that collapsed after being put in an incubator.
The tests on the embryos and on Flora, her sister and other dragons confirmed that Komodo dragons can reproduce through self-fertilization.
"Those genetic tests confirmed absolutely that Flora was both the mother and the father of the embryos. It completely blew us away because it (parthenogenesis) has never been seen in such a large species," Buley explained.
A Komodo dragon at London Zoo gave birth earlier this year after being separated from males for more than two years.
Scientists thought she had been able to store sperm from her earlier encounter with a male but, after hearing about Flora's eggs, researchers conducted tests which showed her eggs were also produced without male help.
"You have two institutions within a few short months of each other having a previously unheard of event. It is really quite unprecedented," said Buley.
The scientists, reporting the discovery in the science journal Nature, said it could help them understand how reptiles colonize new areas. A female dragon could, for instance, swim to another island and establish a new colony on her own.
"The genetics of self-fertilization in lizards means that all her hatchlings would have to be male. These would grow up to mate with their own mother and therefore, within one generation, there would potentially be a population able to reproduce normally on the new island," Buley added.

Thats not right......Mate with your mother.....Maybe not such a miracle....

Christmas Tradition.

Tonight Needles is at a work related get together so I am home alone. This gave me the prefect opportunity to watch one of my favorite Xmas shows. A Christmas Story. Its is possibly the best Xmas show ever created. I know of no other show that best taps into the psyche of a young boy getting close to Xmas time. It takes me back to simpler times of all you worried about was school grades and what you were getting for Xmas. I have to say I never had to bite the soap but god knows I probably should have a few thousand times. It just goes to show that no matter what kinda catastrophe happens over the holidays that just being together is a gift.

I will leave you with a few memorable quotes from the movie.

1.Flick says he saw some grizzly bears near Pulaski's candy store!

2.Oooh fuuudge! Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

3.Scut Farkus! What a rotten name! There he stood, between us and the alley. Scut Farkus staring out at us with his yellow eyes. He had yellow eyes! So, help me, God! Yellow eyes!

4.Sons of bitches! Bumpuses!

DONE.....FINISHED!

We just finished Weffriddles. I know I stated that I was going to take a break for a few days but it's Needles fault. We finished all 58 brain bustin riddles and I hope to be done with them for a while. Good Luck if anyone who want's to attempt them.

The above words will make no sense to you unless you undertake the riddles and even then they still may not make much sense.

I DARE YOU!

As you may have read on Needles Blog about what we did yesterday. We managed to spend about OH......Let me see... 12 (twelve) hours working on Weffriddles. The best way to describe it is computer savvy meets code breaking means agonizing yet addictive torture. Kind like Blogger beta.......but blogger beta isn't as fun... We managed to get to batch 4 yesterday, that is until my brain turned to pudding and ran out of my ears. Yummy pudding. Anyway I don't feel as I have fully recovered from yesterday marathon riddle solving so if I can hold off the addiction for a few days and hit it fresh.

The picture above is Brain pudding. ;)

I HATE BLOGGER BETA!

I WANT MY OLD LOGIN BACK!!!!!!!!

If I could I would change back to the old blogger. Get this. I log into my account and it asks me for my user name and password. I enter it. It asks for it again. I enter it again and then I am able to finally log in. Thats bad enough but when I comment on other peoples blog I type the word varification and the dumb thing just sets there like a turd. No....your comment has been posted or anything so I click on post comment again and it refreshes the comment page and gives me another word varification. SOOOOOoooo after commenting and not knowing if your comment actually went through or not, you find out that all of them went through and you commented the same thing half a dozen times. I have just about had it with them. I hope they get this idiotic things straightened up. Blogging seemed to be a kind of therapy to let me vent and unwind a bit but now it is getting frustrating and not fun. I am now on the fence as to continue or not......We will see how things go. Ramblin might just ramble on down the road.

Let the suffering end.

Its hard to be happy and in the holiday spirit when you know friends are suffering. Cynical and Ragged have a ailing housemate and things are touch and go for the moment. Please keep them in your thoughts and hope that everything works out for them. Hang in there Sammy.

Shopping is DONE!

Well 99% done. We still have a few little items to pick up but otherwise we are pretty much done. The last couple days have been good mail days. I received my ornament and Ragged's compilation Xmas CD. We got home and started wrapping our new purchases so I popped in the CD and we are now on our 2ND time around. We now are daunted at getting the Xmas cards done and sent out. Needles is working on printing out labels so that I don't have to address each and every envelope. She is so smart. We are currently basking the light of the Xmas tree and sipping on coffee to relax just before we get to the cards.














Last night we went out to eat with Rudy, Brando, Yuri and Yin. We went to the Chinese place in Olney. After eating until my tongue pooked out we drove through the City Park with all of its lights. Of course no camera = no pictures. We then went to OP and sipped coffee until I think my metabolism got all Jacked up in order to burn off the Chinese. It was at this time that we parted ways and said goodbye to Rudy , Brando and the young ens as bed time was fast approaching. As for us we decided to drop in on Jenny from the Blog. We stood on her front porch and called her to let us in. We visited and laughed until it was time for us to leave and let her get back to homework. YUCK! Anyway so far it has been a nice weekend.

Pictured above is the Xmas tree in day light and Raggeds Xmas CD. Thanks Ragged.

Its beginning to look alot like Xmas. Rown Here!

Yep as the perv comments keep coming in I see that most of you have seen that I managed to get "it" up. Yes, Yes the kittys have smelled and nibbled "it" a few times but all in all "it" hasn't been knocked over......yet! A couple of "its" ornaments have been knocked off while I wasn't looking and was batted around the room but "it" has been a better experience than I expected. I figured I'd be putting the "it" back up every evening. Maybe sometimes twice a day, that sounds like a lot of work. I hope that "it" would make it through the rest of the month, standing erect , straight and proud. We have managed to put a few present under "it" but we need to buy a few more because they are hard to see them in the shadow of such a monstrosity. I know that just the presence of "it"makes me feel a little more festive. I think everyone needs one standing in their living room so that even the neighbors can see "it" from the street. Hell go crazy and throw a few light on the "it". Have a Merry Xmas everyone.

P.S. The picture above is of my Xmas balls. Don't laugh it is perfectly normal for one to hang lower than the other.

IT"S UP!

Needles and I put the tree up today. We have been guarding it from Copper that has never seen a Xmas tree before. This is our first Xmas with him and with his special kitty ways, I think we are in for an interesting month. I will keep you posted. If you remember last year we had Tuggers first Xmas and we had a few problems with ornaments being knocked off but not too bad. Tomorrow we are going down to Needle's mom to see if the uncle's had any luck in the second deer season. We have had a rather pleasant few days off staying inside where it is warm. Looks like we are in for a cold week, but no snow and that is a good thing seeing what just west of us is going through.