I thought a good end-of-the-year post would be to blog all the things that we are thankful for in the year anno domini two thousand two!

A	Airplanes	These brought us to each other.
B	Baking Travesties	Remember that carrot bread fiasco?
C	ColdFusion	Learning and implenting ColdFusion.
D	Driving USA	Driving from AL to CA was very neat.
E	Employment	We wouldn't have work without it.
F	Family and Friends	What can be said?
G	Greek Students	These ones come over Tuesdays and learn Gk.
H	Holy Bible (ESV)	Reading from a new translation.
I	Internet	Thank goodness for instant messaging and blogs.
J	Joy	The joy of Christ and each other.
K	Kodak Moments	Mad props to the digital and disposable cameras.
L	Lakers Three-peat	The Lakers won their third straight championship.
M	Marriage	We've been having a wonderful and fulfilling marriage.
N	No Longer Apart	Forget that long distance stuff!
O	Over-Drawn Account	Well, at least they haven't taken the house!
P	Playing Games	Scrabble and Uno have become our favourites.
Q	Quiet Nights	There aren't any little ones keeping us up.
R	Roof over Our Head	A place to to call home.
S	San Francisco Trip	Definitely one of the highlights of the year.
T	True Love	We're loving each other more and more each day!
U	Underwear	How can you not be thankful for clean undies?
V	Verbs	I like verbs. Where would we be without them?
W	Wedding	We had an absolutely wonderful wedding this year.
X	X-Mas (First)	It was a specially marvelous Christmas.
Y	You all!	Thank you all for actually reading our site!!!
Z	Zip Code	We've been able to learn a new zip code: 92780.

Well, happy new year's eve! Time to make some pointless new year's resolutions. Me? I'd like to keep this year's poinsettia alive for more than two months, beating my previous records with plantlife. Learn to do something useful with my extra time at work. And of course, the popular "lose a few pounds" thing. Have a great night and a happy new year.

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I had a dream last night that I had this great idea to blog about, so I wrote down two key words so I could remember it later: men and mustaches. Needless to say, I have no idea what that was all about.

Today was pretty much the usual Sunday. We went to church, ate at Rubio's, and went to the park. The ducks ignored us due to our lack of bread, and there were a few other people there fishing for the contaminated mutant fishies. There was an abandoned black wallet with flames on the front on the bench where we sat, and I suspect that the fishers actually pulled it from the water, and disappointed that it wasn't a toxic fish, placed it on the bench. But the water was very pretty, reflecting the blue sky and holding just the right amount of plastic bags and paper ads.

To all of those who didn't get a card yet: happy Kwanzaa! We hope Kwanzaa Claus brought you everything you wanted.

Oh, and get well soon, Mom! We love you and will be praying for you.

I hope that everyone is happy that I changed the website back to its old (non-xmas) style. In other news, we literally had a sick Christmas. So have a happy New Year!

Last night, Wendy and I drove around looking at Christmas Lights. We also had the digcam, so here's the outcome.

We spent Saturday at Six Flags Magic Mountain with Seth, Lessie, Kellê and Nathan. We picked a good day to go because everyone was busy packing themselves into the malls instead of crowding the park. It was a bit cloudy and later rained, but otherwise a lot of fun. Click here to see pictures from our adventures at Magic Mountain.

I just took this short quiz (via baruk). Here's how it all went down:

#1 Presbyterian Church in America/Orthodox Presbyterian Church

#2 Reformed Churches

#3 Reformed Baptist

#4 Presbyterian Church USA

#5 Southern Baptist

The last few days we have attended a couple of white elephant gift exchanges. Some of the gifts that we brought included the following items: an elephant, denture cleaner, two theatre masks, Tapatio, a "Country Corner" sign, some sort fish filet with paprika sauce, and a framed picture of our hamster (Lord Byron). The goal of white elephant participation is this: Bring something cheap, and walk away with something valuable. For this season, our motto has both worked and failed for us. The first party we attended we walked out with some weird ball-on-a-stand-encapsulating-another-ball, a dyed-military-cut-mannequin-head, and a Mexican toy as a sympathy present. The second time around we did a little better with European optic glass jars with lids and a glass margarita set including a picture. Here's a look at the spoil:

When I posted this last month, I was really saying what was said in this article. Thanks Paulo.

The whole Christmas thing was way funner when I was a kid. I assumed my presents came from some old guy who didn't expect a thank-you card or reimbursement. Now I know good and well that I have to get everyone under the sun a gift or a card or their feelings will be forever bruised. Okay, maybe not everyone. It just feels like it when you look over your budget and feel way more greedy than you should.

Brandon's distracted by Pete & Pete, which we usually watch every weekday night. It's such a good show. He's watching the episode where the older Pete is a lifeguard and someone won't stop peeing the pool.

I got the new Dashboard Confessional album (unplugged) ealier this week, which is I think a week before you can buy it in stores. The sad thing is, I haven't even listened to it yet. I guess I'm through with my Dashboard phase. I still prefer mostly whiney bands, though. They're just so darned sincere.

I thought I would get more in the holiday season with my favourite Jewish song:

Dreidel. Dreidel. Dreidel.
I made it out of clay.
Dreidel. Dreidel. Dreidel.
What's up dog let's play!

Download the MP3 version here.

How come all movies about aliens are always the same? The aliens are always so much more technologically advanced, they always seek us out first, and they always try to take over our planet. I think this comes from low self esteem in humans. How come we're not good enough to find them first? Why don't we go abduct some aliens or take over their planet? We could at least do that in the movies...

I'm just getting in the holiday season—that's all. Don't worry, come January 1^st, this place will be all back to normal!

I spent a good portion of the day downloading 17,906 emails from an old email account to get some account information for one of my domain names. Doing this is not a pleasant thing when you have a slow ghetto connection.

*blushing*

I think that I'll spend a good portion of this weekend watching and re-watching Harry Potter. You see, I'm in a dire situation and need to learn magick. Someone of Voldemort proportions had cast a spell upon the Los Angeles Lakers. Though they have Kobe and Shaq, they are still in last place, and so I find it my duty to release this spell.

What is it about the Christmas season that brings out the tacky in people? Suddenly they lose any ability to tell that their different shaped, different colored blinking lights aren't even sychronized.

As I mentioned earlier, my work plays the all holiday music, all the time station. I've noticed an annoying variation in different versions of the song "Winter Wonderland." One says "In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that he is Parson Brown." The other substitutes "Parson Brown" with "circus clown". What is that? The snowman isn't colorful. It doesn't look like a clown. Besides, no kids really like clowns, they think they're creepy. I just don't get it.

People have been asking when we'll return to the South for a visit. So, for those of you who missed me enough to read my website, we'll be flying to Alabama January 8th and leaving January 15th. I can't wait to see my friends and family. Unfortunately most of my friends from my hometown will probably be starting college again around that time. So, to those who will be, quit college. We're worth it.