If we had a Marriage, These Would be its Thoughts

It’s a Christmas blog!

January 16, 2011 3:15 pm

Kyle and I went to my family’s, in Frisco, TX, for Christmas this year. It was awesome! We played a lot of games, including Guitar Hero…

…Mario Kart…

…and the New Super Mario Bros. (Colton and Christopher had a great deal of fun throwing each other off of cliffs.)

We got to meet Miles, Christopher and Jenny’s 8-month-old son. He’s freaking adorable!

On Christmas Eve, we played a Christmas Family Feud game that was a ton of fun. I only wish I could remember what had just happened to make them all look like that:

Now, a couple of pics from Christmas Day: I’m wearing the robe Kyle’s mom made for me (now I can stop stealing Kyle’s!) and switching out my old, dying watch for the new one Kyle got me.

Here’s Kyle with his new apron!

We’re still trying to figure out how best to hang the set of wind chimes my parents got us, but I’m totally stoked about them.

While we were home, I also got to see Melanie, which was great (even if the picture isn’t)…

…as well as go through all the stuff my parents had of mine and sort out what to keep and what to trash. Kyle had a lot of fun reading from my journal from when I was 10 or so and making us all laugh at the silliness therein, but this is me tying on an old pair of pointe shoes.

The holiday was also the occasion for new family pictures. We weren’t sure what we were going to do, since the original plan was to do them outside in the park, but it was raining and freezing that day. The family ended up setting up a really nice area in our kitchen, using brown sheets as a backdrop. I don’t have the ones taken by the photographer yet, but here’s a cute one of Miles and Maddox, taken the next day.

We got to spend a wonderful 9 days there with family before driving back here again. We took 3 days to drive out, but we were racing a storm on our way home, so we did the return trip in 2 days. That second day was crazy: we had sunshine, fog, snow, rain, and hail! Obviously, though, we made it home safely. It was so good to see everyone while we could, though.

Baby Burro

December 18, 2010 3:36 pm

We’re crossing Arizona today. We detoured across Route 66, taking the scenic route through Oatman. Just before town we came across some Christmas trees:

I include the car and surrounding area just to provide a proper sense of the middle-of-nowhere-ness of the location.

Then when we got into Oatman we had to wait for the daily gunfight to clear the road. So while we waited we got out and bought some kettle corn and watched the baby burro:
That basically made the scenic route worth it.

If you ever get bored, or just have 5 minutes to spare…

December 8, 2010 11:21 am

I’ve been getting a ridiculous amount of enjoyment out of watching clips of How It’s Made on YouTube. Seriously.

Freedom of the Press

December 7, 2010 8:12 am

President Obama while in China – November 16, 2009:

But I am a big believer in technology and I’m a big believer in openness when it comes to the flow of information. I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves. That generates new ideas. It encourages creativity. (emphasis mine)

Hillary Clinton – January 1, 2010:

[President Obama] spoke about how access to information helps citizens hold their own governments accountable, generates new ideas, encourages creativity and entrepreneurship. The United States belief in that ground truth is what brings me here today.

Hillary Clinton about WikiLeaks – November 29, 2010:

It is an attack on the international community…

Sarah Palin about Julian Assange – November 30, 2010:

Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?

Senator Joe Lieberman – December 7, 2010:

It sure looks to me that Assange and WikiLeaks have violated the Espionage Act.

Philip Crowley (State Department Spokesman) – December 7, 2010:

What WikiLeaks has done is a crime under US law.

So much for Freedom of the Press and holding our own governments accountable. Also, as much as people are clamoring to charge Assange with a crime there’s the small problem of him not being a U.S. citizen. Seems rather extraordinary to charge someone with a crime under a law in a country in which they neither live nor have citizenship. But Palin apparently has the answer to that, just call him a terrorist and kill him where he stands.

Regardless of how you feel about the leaked information WikiLeaks needs to be protected the same way any other news organization would be, including the New York Times which collaborated with WikiLeaks in processing the documents and deciding what to publish.

Christmas time is here

December 4, 2010 10:22 pm

Per Jess’ traditions we needed to decorate the tree today (today being the first Saturday in December). This, of course, necessitates having a tree to decorate. So we had to go and get a tree. Per Dickerson traditions this requires cutting our tree down ourselves after trudging around in the snow at least until you can’t feel your toes, preferably until someone is crying. Unfortunately, California weather doesn’t really cooperate with those requirements (though I suppose we could drive into the mountains far enough if necessary).

So instead we headed out to the Christmas tree farm that we went to last year in the 50 degree sunshine. We found a fairly decent looking tree and I cut it down. And yes, it’s on the side of a hill, which is why the fence is crooked.

In no time at all we had Beatrice (last year’s tree was named Albert, this year’s is Beatrice) tied onto Chloe and ready to travel.

The main difference from last year being that we actually went during the day and not as the sun was setting. Easier to work when you have light. We got the tree home and set it up. TADA!

Check out that spotlight work on the angel.

Jess cheated and slipped some new ornaments into the ornament box as presents for me. Then tried to make me feel stupid for not recognizing them at all. But they are pretty neat. She used a Linux program which will convert a picture into a cross-stitch pattern for you. This one is my Mii from the Wii:

And this is the Linux Penguin, named Tux:

Since I had the camera out and on the tripod already (since I needed the tripod to get decent shots) I started playing with things. Here’s my abstract art of our tree:

And this is what happens when you zoom in on the tree while the exposure is being taken:

We spent some time watching the Livermore Christmas Parade (I suppose it’s probably called the “Holiday Parade” or “Winter Parade” or something, but it does end with Santa). And we watched The Muppet Christmas Carol while decorating.

Oh! And we hung up our stockings! Jess’ mom made her children stockings and last year made one for me too, so Jess and I have matching stockings. They’re quite lovely.