T-Day Weekend Video Clips

And, the best for last:

ZOMGBEATLESROCKBAND

Frankly, all the reviews are right: it's amazing. The sound is unbelievably crisp, the song choice is great, and the animation is more like a feature film than a video game. You know what this means: Bundy Kid Thanksgiving is gonna be OFF THE HOOK THIS YEAR (can I get a "what?what?" up in here??).

The neighbors came over last Sunday night to help us break in the new peripherals, including Beatles-themed drums, mike with mike stand, and a supersweet Hofner viola-style bass controller.


Franklin likes the drums, too, but not as much as ...

... the box they came in. It was a great opportunity to I talked to him about how awesome it is to build forts.

Belated Post: New Year's Eve Pics

On New Year's Eve, Pat and Sam had us up to their place for a wonderful meal.

Heavenly desserts!

Snowy puppy thinks that her disc-retrieving skills should be rewarded with ice cream.

Patient puppy waits for ice cream.

Flirty puppy attempts to use charm to obtain ice cream.

Desperate puppy pulls out her best tricks to earn ice cream.

Happy puppy!

Sleepy puppy.

Christmas Eve 2008

Home for the Holidays

The Good and the Bad

The holidays can be both a wonderful time of, um, wonder. They can also be a total sh-tstorm. Amidst all the Christmas- and Hanukkah-themed postings and year-in-review listicles in the blogosphere, Gawker has a fantastic post -- it’s subtitled “Why Don’t You Just Invite the Police Over This Year?” -- that shares commenters’ stories about the holidays. Equally awesome are the further stories left below the post (note that by “awesome,” I mean that the stories are very compelling, but it don’t necessarily mean they’re upbeat). Some excerpts [sic in advance on all this stuff]:

“I recall one particular Christmas when my little sister said her stomach hurt and my mother made her go to midnight mass anyway. About 30 minutes in, she puked all over the pew and we had to leave amid lots of dirty looks. Strangely enough, the same sister is the most Catholic of all my siblings today. I guess once you puke on it, you own it.”

…

“I'll never forget Christmas 1983, when I wanted a Swatch so, so, so badly and had been begging for one forever. So I got one from my aunt and uncle and couldn't have been more excited to wear it to school after break and show all my friends. I was less excited when every one of them pointed out that it was actually a girl's swatch and teased me relentlessly. I hated third grade.”

…

“When I was eight, my family had a hermit crab and it escaped in October. We figured it was dead and my mom had thrown it out and just didn't want to tell us. Cue to Christmas day: we are opening our presents and my dog walks up, drops the hermit crab in my sister’s lap and leaves the room. Apparently my dog had been carrying around the hermit crab on and off for 2 months and decided to give it back for Christmas.”

…

“My two-year-old niece did announce on Christmas Day after services that she'd ‘seen [my] boobies and that they were bigger than Mommy's’ to a crowd of about 15 people (I had been babysitting her that week and had to lock her in the bathroom with me while I showered). I was 15, and the mortification lingers to this day.”

This, Santa, Is What We Call A "Turbine"

T-Day Highlight

The best part of yesterday's Thanksgiving gathering at Aunt Loretta's? Hanging out with Maddie, pictured below.

Seattle 08: An Ab Workout

Seattle 08: Grown-Up (Kinda) Time

Seattle 08: Hat Tricks

Seattle 08: On the Town