"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"

Need some new traditions for your New Year's Eve party?


courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square)

  
In Greece, St. Basil fills the children's shoes with presents at midnight. (use boots and you could fit more presents probably - like a second Christmas)
 
In Denmark it is a good sign to find your door heaped with a pile of broken dishes at New Years. Old dishes are saved year around to throw them at the homes where their friends live on New Years Eve. Many broken dishes were a symbol that you have many friends! (I probably wouldn't do this if you're not in Denmark.)

For Extra Luck in the new year try one of these:
 

• In Puerto Rico children enjoy throwing pails of water out the window at midnight. Some believe that this rids their home of any evil spirits!
• In Spain when the clock strikes midnight the people eat 12 grapes. One grape for every stroke of the clock to represent each month in the year. Each grape is said to bring good luck in the new year.  My brother spent 2 years in Spain on his mission so he and his wife count down to midnight with the 12 grapes - 1 each second.  Now that's a mouth full.
• Switzerland believes good luck comes from letting a drop of cream land on the floor New Years Day.
• The French eat a stack of pancakes for luck and good health.
• Belgium farmers wish their animals a Happy New Year for blessings.
• In parts of Portugal children go caroling from home to home and are given treats and coins. (Can you confirm this Mat?) 
• A Romanian tradition is listening to hear if the farm animals talked on New Years Day. If the animals talked it was considered bad luck so they are relived when they do not hear any talking animals. Do they ever have years of good luck without drugging the animals?  I'd like to meet some quiet chickens or a quiet cow.
• In Bolivia families make beautiful little wood or straw dolls to hang outside their homes to bring good luck.

(Information provided by the world wide web: http://www.essortment.com/all/newyearsevetr_rllr.htm)



courtesy of Bing images (New York's Time Square aftermath)

Whether you make it all the way to 12:01 1/1/2011 or not.  I wish you and yours a Happy (and safe) New Year!

Maybe for next year you could plan on attending the Opossum Drop in Brasstown (Opossum Capitol of the world!), NC  Population 240 and holding steady for the last 100 years.

"If New York can drop a "Ball", Georgia can drop a "Peach", then we can lower the Opossum."  - clay's corner

"More exciting than when the hogs ate Granny!"
The Carringer Chronicle, Jan `99

Every day is the start of a new year.

I usually don't even think about making resolutions, but I think I may make some goals this year...stay tuned and see what they turn out to be.

This video was entertaining enough and thought provoking.  You don't have to wait for New Year's to decide to make changes.   

 It reminds me of the man on the street video I like about Thanksgiving.

Taxidermy

A while back we had these tress expertly painted by my parents in our sitting room adjoining the bedroom.  Then, while in Arizona for Thanksgiving, I experienced Z Gallerie for the first time. I quite enjoyed it.  I think I need some fake animal heads on my wall now. 

Here is my room.

We need a cute table/shelf to put right under the TV so the receivers and HTPC stuff aren't on the floor.
We need a coffee table of sorts as well...maybe a loveseat to go under the window instead of chairs in the corners...

The chairs a actually quite comfy once you get balanced...j/k

And here is my inspiration.






The two above are from Z Gallerie. I'm starting a collection jar.



Cardboard Taxidermy from Urban Outfitters.  I just thought it was clever.

Also found some DIY inspiration at Anthropologie.

These were really neat.  Maybe I could go Safari in my room and use and elephant and rhino head.  They look like all you need is a plaster, chicken wire, or paper mache base and then cover it with newspaper or book pages. The zebra's stripes are just painted on. 

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Ok, so we actually warmed up to 60 today (finally my toes could thaw out from the last week of 30s), but with Christmas only 2 days away I wanted to pretend.

If you are somewhere where it's miserably cold outside - and I hate it for ya - start a sweat with Blair's Death Rain potato chips or Dave's Gourmet hot sauces!  With names like Satan Blood and Da' Bomb you can't go wrong.

WWW.HOTSAUCE.COM

Bryce ordered a couple different things and gave it as gifts to his lunch buddies, who have numerous stories of sweating and crying from coating things in hot sauce.  Of course they loved it :)  And I loved it because I got to taste what was left.  I got some laughs in between tears and heavy breathing (I'll admit to scraping my tongue after the hot sauce).

What I was really impressed with was the flavor of everything.  The flavor was exsistent and enjoyable so it wasn't just hot to be hot...there was a point to eating it still. :) I don't appreciate the Ghost Pepper hot sauce flavor so that's a never again on that flavor.

My favorites?  The Chipotle potato chips (Medium hotness and given 2 flames on the hot scale) and my runner up was Habanero potato chips. (4 flames on the hot scale and labeled as XXX HOT)

My favorite and my least favorite waiting to eaten.

In last place were the Buffalo and Cheddar was just a step better. (Both have 2 flames on the hot scale)

Oppo knocked-off spells Poop

Bryce shared this discovery with me and I didn't believe it until I saw it.  This phone is a knockoff of the Oppo phone (I've never heard of it either).  I guess the knockoff department thought they'd be clever and switch the Os and Ps.  Which left them with the Poop phone. Good job.

The Worst Name for a Knockoff Cellphone, Ever


And just in time for the gift-giving, holiday season Engadget has given a gift of its own: Engadget's Holiday Anti-Gift Guide.  Seriously, I love whoever wrote this.  Here's a teaser.

Toshiba Regza 12GL1You can tell everyone within earshot that this is a highly innovative piece of technology, that it delivers a glasses-free 3D picture and all that, but it ain't gonna change the fact that Toshiba's 12GL1 is a 12-inch screen with a 466 x 350 resolution. Seriously, read that again. We've had bigger displays than that in our bathrooms since the '80s. If you want to inflict a tiny screen with a prissy 3D tech -- in our experience, the GL1 loses its luster with only minimal movement off center -- this is most definitely the high-end item you're looking for.

Price: ¥120,000 ($1,431)

Or for you iPhone lovers:

iPhone 4 Diamond Rose Edition - $7.75m

Stuart Hughes maintains his position on our annual anti-gift guide by going even further into the land of exorbitant prices for extravagant phones. Costing nearly $8 million, his iPhone 4 boasts 500 flawless diamonds, a rose gold back, a solid granite case, and absolutely no appreciation for things like economics or subtlety.

All My Children

This was outside of PetsMart where the animal lovers go.

The things people put on their cars...

Say What?!

This will be common post title - as I continue to find things that make me ask, Say What?!  If you have some, please share. :)

Cracker Alley.  Maybe this one's only funny to me because of where I live.  Say What?!

Say What?!: Holiday

While visiting family in Arizona we went in the Fryes grocery store and this display made me to do a double take as I walked by.  I stopped, tilted my head, and asked myself, "Did that say poop?" 

Yes, it did, but not just any poop - Snowman poop! Say What?!

fa ra ra ra ra

Finished and showing them off outside.  Here's how they started.

Tis the Season



Home (to little critters) Depot

We live in a neighborhood with an HOA and requirements for maintaining your yard.  Bryce's weed whipping, as he calls it, wasn't good enough after 3 years so he decided he'd give in and buy whatever the cheapest edger was at Home Depot.  The only cheap edger left was in a crunched box that had holes in and looked like it'd be kicked around and dropped a few times.  He asked if there was another of the same, in a better box, available.  There was not so Home Depot, thinking they were doing him a favor, gave him an extra 10% off for the condition of the box.  The man should have opened the box before bringing it home! 

Maybe he could've gotten a dead rodent discount. 

Bryce already though it was gross when he opened it up to find the handle covered in mouse droppings and almost couldn't handle it when he found the dead mouse at the bottom.  Needless to say he did some serious sanitizing before using the "new" edger.

Now, onto prettier and alive critters....

Look what we found hiding in the tree toppers at Home Depot.



Can anybody identify this lizard?  It even changed colors a little bit when Bryce took it off the bow...I guess he thought he could turn red. :)

Bryce is good at catching anything from lizards to frogs and even this for our nephew's birthday present. :)



Bombay Mahogany

Exotic right?  Well it matches the brick on the front of our house perfectly.

I bought the wood stain for a bamboo pole I've been drying in our garage for the past 2 years - I'm guesstimating here.  It didn't take that long to dry out, but I left it sitting because I wasn't ready to move on with it.   I finally took a Saturday and while the weather was decent outside I stained the pole.  It's a pretty dark brown with lots of red.  It's glossy so the bamboo pole is now very svelte looking in its new shiny lacquer.  I bought a very small can of the wood stain and still had lots left after the 2 1/2 coats I did.  The pole will be hung in the guest bedroom as the curtain rod.  I have two beautiful silk panels I'm excited to hang from it. 

This month as we got Christmas decorations down I pulled out two small trees in pots and decided it was time to do something about the raw, matte, white pots.  Now they are Bombay Mahongany (keep in mind this was a wood stain I put on some type of ceramic) and it worked out pretty well I think.  They are pre lit and sit outside on either side of our front door with ribbons swagged around them.  Bryce's first comment.  "Hey, they match the brick exactly."  Translation: he approves because they don't stand out. :)   The trees come off a bit more traditional now, but I wasn't really feeling the white.  I guess a glossy black would be the other choice for me.

Chigedy ching

An I-talian Christmas favorite.  Bryce and I have watched a couple differnent videos, here's my favorite.  Warning: It gets stuck in your head!

Please to enjoy the following link.

Dominick the Donkey



Weebles wobble, but they don't fall down

Same with Awzker.  He's getting super fat.  He's shaped like a bowling pin, but a really fat bowling pin.  He's a funny cat anyway because he has belly flab that just hangs down and swings while he prances around.  He eats a lot and it shows. :)  He also really enjoys sleeping on his back and sitting up, crouching like a cricket, and cuddling.  I don't think he's really a cat.  We bought the two cats some toys on a rope so you can mess with them.  Awzker would just hold on and you could roll him around - so it made us think of the weeble wobbles...I tried to recreate it today by myself (of course it doesn't work out the same and videos take too long to upload.)  So here are some stills.  **Awzker is not even a year old and he weighs 11 pounds.  Jamba, is almost 2 and she weighs 8 lbs.**

Whachu doin?  Nothing chillin at the Holidae In

Awzker the cricket.  This is how he eats as well.

Remember how little he was when we got him?

Just Jukin'

Bryce and I had the opportunity to go to Paris, post to come, in October and while there happened upon the Paris Auto show!  Super exciting, I know.  But it is a pretty good coincidence because it's held every other year.  This is where we found our true souvenir and my Christmas present.  At least Bryce keeps telling me that's what it is. :)  We didn't order it while we were there, but we did look at one and I even got to sit in it!

It's higher up than my tC was, has 4 doors which has been nice and is AWD so I can drive through fields and up mountains a bit easier.  Plus, you may not believe this, but someday...Someday....we might have kids. :)  So, we went for the leather seats for clean up ease.

The Juke has a turbo, torque-vectoring all-wheel drive, booty roasters, rear windshild wiper, and front and rear defrosters. :)  Ok, so I don't know what to tell you about it, but it's cool and I like it a lot.  Here are some more pictures from it in the US of A.

 Bryce's pride and joy:  You press the "Climate" button and it shows you the climate controls.

 You press the "D-Mode" button and it shows you your options..sport, normal, eco, etc... The car has a CVT which comes in all newer Nissan.  You can't feel the shifting in it (we got an automatice because Bryce said I don't need any other distractions while I drive) on sport mode, they put in fake shifting.

The rest of the story... Bryce and I were pretty picky with our list of wants on this car: spoiler, gun metallic paint, SL trim, and AWD.  Apparently these are hot items.  We called about a couple in North Carolina, one in West Viriginia, and Kentucky.  They had all just been sold when we asked about them and we found one more in Virginia, just outside of DC.  We called, ask them to hold it and said we'd be up there that weekend to pick it up.  We sold my car to CarMax and went a couple days as a one-car family.  Flew up to the Dulles airport, Thanks Delta!, and drove 10 hours home.  We did get to have a fun night with Tanya, James, Taja-Maya and TomCat.  Thanks guys we couldn't have done it without you!

The Juke.