Sheep Guarding Llama

Today is Boxing Day – the celebration of “Good King Wenceslas”. The day when people recover from the exhaustion of the Christmas holiday.

Our first order of the day, once people were awake and moving, was to get everyone ready and out the door to go see Night at the Museum. We were over prepared for big crowds and arrived at the theatre right at noon for a one o’clock showing. Because so much of Dominica’s family was going with us we had to be ready and waiting at the door since a quarter after eleven. So we were ready and waiting for the movie to start for close to two hours! The movie theatre never ended up filling up although it was fairly busy. Personally I think that home theatres are completely killing the movie theatre business. They do so much to make going out to the movies uncomfortable and expensive and in so many ways inferior to the home experience that it just isn’t worth it. They are artificially giving the theatres an advantage by allowing movies to release their first and only then going to DVD, HD-DVD and Blu-Ray but that can only last for so long.

Night at the Museum was really good and had a surprise cast that I was not expecting. It was a lot of fun and it was very family friendly which you don’t get too much of these days. I am really glad that we went to see it. Everyone really enjoyed it.

After the movie we went back to the house and I worked on setting up the Grices’ new computer.  That, of course, takes forever.  As I was setting it up we realized that this was one of the first machines that I have ever set up of Windows XP that was not going onto a Windows Domain which normally takes care of a lot of the setup process for me.  It has been years since I did a clean install of a personal use machine.  It was amazing how hard it was to set up and how much stuff you simply “had to know” to be able to get it to work.  It was a simply unreal amount of set up and it was very obvious that if you don’t have someone knowlegable about Microsoft Windows there is no way to get it really working well or safely.  I have gotten so used to Linux (SUSE, Fedora, Ubuntu or the BSDs like PC-BSD) with their super simple install process (much easier than Windows) and far easier post-install setup that I have totally forgotten how terrible Windows is to work with like that and how completely impossible it is for a casual user to use.  The average Linux installation is so much easier I can’t believe that everyone hasn’t switched all ready.

While we were setting up the computer Francesca decided that there were some additional computer parts that she would like so we all decided to go out to dinner and then shopping.  Everyone headed out to Denny’s for dinner and then we went to Best Buy to get some computer supplies.  We were unable to find a single thing that she needed at Best Buy.  I knew that Best Buy wouldn’t handle everything that she wanted but never imagined that they wouldn’t carry basic hardware like a DVD burner!  (They had legacy DVD Burners for people with old PATA equipment but modern SATA machines like the Grices’ new HP require modern equipment that Best Buy hasn’t even told their staff about yet apparently!!  It is unreal that people shop there!)  So that was a complete waste of time.  But at least she didn’t buy a bunch of stuff at double its normal prices.  Amazon and New Egg are totally the places to get this stuff.  We did fine the complete Dungeons and Dragons cartoon series at Best Buy and had to get that along with Mel Brook’s History of the World Part I which is an awesome movie, maybe the best Mel Brooks movie ever, but amazingly he never made a sequel which would have been awesome.
By the time we were heading for home I was feeling really sick.  It really started before we went to eat but it wasn’t very bad and I really didn’t take any notice of it.  By the time that we had dinner I was just starting to realize that something was wrong and by the time that we left Best Buy I was in pretty rough shape.

I spent the rest of the evening fighting with what appears to be food poisoning.  Francesca got a little sick too but nothing like what I did.  I was so sick that I did not manage to even really go to bed until almost four in the morning.  It was a really rough night.

Christmas 2006 has arrived.  Dominica and I were understandably quite tired when this morning rolled around.  As every year, we were all up at nine and the race to open presents was on.  Actually today the present opening was not nearly as crazy as it has been on many occasions.  We ended up only taking about four and a half hours instead of the usual five to six hours.

Dominica and my big presents include money towards a Nintendo Wii and bar stools for our living room, Superman Returns on DVD, Charmed Season One on DVD (for Dominica, not for me,) lots of work clothes, a gym bag for when I work out at the apartment, Final Fantasy III for the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy V for the GBA and lots of other stuff.
After the present opening it was time to go to Dominica’s grandfather’s home for the evening Christmas festivities.  I have learned the routine and know pretty much what to expect from Christmas in Frankfort these days.

Merry Christmas everyone from everyone at Sheep Guarding Llama and SGL Media!

Dominica and I started the day by sleeping in a little. No big plans this morning so we had lots of time to relax and enjoy our house in Geneseo.

Dad came over to Geneseo after church and we all went out to the Omega and hung out there for a while. After lunch we all went over to dad’s house for the afternoon and exchanged presents. No real surprises this year except that Dominica got me a really nice scarf and the complete Gummy Bears on DVD! I am very excited about that. I loved that cartoon back in the 1980’s. That was all time favourite Saturday morning cartoon. One of the few that was produced like a movie and not like a low budget kids’ show. The quality really showed. My big present from Dominica is the Creative Zen Vision W with the 4.3″ 480×272 screen. She got me the 60GB model that can store close to 100 movies!! I am very excited to get to try it out.

We ended up hanging out at dad’s house a lot longer than we had been anticipating. Our original plan was to only be there until five and then to go back to Geneseo, pack and get ready to travel and then to meet the family at church. But we ended up staying right up until it was time to go to church and then we went down to Leicester to the Christmas Eve service.

After the candlelight service at the church in Leicester we rushed to Geneseo and packed the car as quickly as we could.  It took just a little under an hour to drive to Geneseo and get ready to go and be off again.

The drive to Frankfort went well and took barely over two hours!  Not bad at all.  Everyone was still awake when we arrived and the Christmas present process was just beginning.

I was up at eight thirty this morning just five hours after going to bed. Every time that we are in Geneseo I realize how much I miss our awesome seven foot square platform bed that Art Ralston built for us. Sleeping on the floor in Newark is okay (we have a foam mattress on the floor so we are not sleeping directly on concrete but there is no “bed”) but the giant, sprawling feel of the haphazard bedding on the platform frame in Geneseo is my favourite. Oreo really like it too as he has plenty of space and can choose where he wants to sleep and can migrate around the bed during the night. In Newark he is pretty much stuck sleeping directly between us generally with he head on one pillow or the other.

Once Dominica got up about an hour after me we showered and got ready for the day. Dad came over for breakfast around ten thirty. We went, as always, to the Omega Grill and hung out there for about three hours which is actually pretty short for us. Dominica and my pictures from Disney World are still on the milk fridge there. It has been well over a year since they were first put up there.

Dad went back home after brunch and Dominica, Oreo and I did some work around the house and then ran out to Walmart to do some shopping. The Walmart by our house here in Geneseo was “packed” (read: the parking lot was full) which is a totally different thing than a packed store in New Jersey. In NJ the parking lots are three times the size and almost no one is working in the store. Here in Geneseo the store is well stocked with stuff to by, the people shopping are more or less polite and orderly and there are more than enough cashiers and stock people that you are able to easily find items that you want, pay for them and leave the store very quickly. In New Jersey the parking lot would be just half full and the cashier lines would be snaking back into the store and most of the registers would be closed or the cashiers would be moving like molasses in, well, December. Amazing how much the culture of Upstate New York varies from the culture of Northern New Jersey.

The Ralstons came over to visit right after we got back from shopping. They have been trying to get down to Newark to see us but haven’t been able to squeeze in the trip yet. Art and Michael have never been to New York City so it will be a really neat trip for them.  We all visited for about two hours.  Michael got to open his Christmas presents from us.  We got him a The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe video game for the Game Boy Advance.  We are getting him a GBA SP but we were totally unable to find one yet so he has to wait on that but he has an older GBA that he can use to play his new game in the meantime.  He also got, but not officially as a Christmas present, our year old Kodak digital camera to take to New Guinea with him so that he can take pictures and make movies of the island so that he can share it back with people here.

After the Ralstons left it was time for us to head over to Perry to go to the Lumberyard Restaurant.  Dad took the extended family out for a nice Christmas Eve Almost and Sara’s Birthday dinner (Sara turned nineteen yesterday.)  We had a really good time.  Dominica and I both went for stuffed, broiled Haddock which was very good.

From dinner everyone drove over to dad’s farm and we spent the evening visiting there.  Dominica, Oreo and I stayed until almost one in the morning before returning to Geneseo.  Dominica and Oreo were very tired (as was dad) but I stayed up until three working on SGL as I really wanted to get the Christmas theme onto the site so that everyone would see it on Christmas Eve morn.  Getting the theme was easy but there was an issue with any files that I managed to transfer to the server and it took quite a few hours to get everything actually working and to diagnose the issue.  What a pain.  But it is working now and looks awesome, I think.

I wrote a lot of today’s post and then lost it when the office’s DNS cache reverted and cut me off from SGL. What a pain.

I had to get up early this morning. No rest for the weary. Even after working until three in the morning I had to be up because the Mazda PR5 that Dominica and I are driving to Rochester tonight has to go into the shop this morning.

I took the car into the shop because it is having the same issue with the shifter that it was having a month ago. I don’t want to do any damage to the car so I decided that it needed to get into the shop before we were out of town doing tons of driving for a few weeks. Since it was going into the shop anyway I also decided that it should get a full tune up. Over the past few months, as the car approaches ninety thousand miles, it has been getting weaker and weaker. It is really having a hard time with the hills and the gas mileage has dropped considerably. So I am sure that a tune up will do it a world of good. It is getting a new timing belt, drive belts, water pump, front breaks among other things. About $1,600 in all. A bit more than I had been hoping for but the car should be safe and we really hope that the gas mileage will be back in the range that it belongs in.

Unfortunately because my car has to be in the shop all day I am stuck in the office until much later than I had figured that I would be today. Dominica is only working until five today but I don’t have a ride from the office to the dealership until six. Fortunately Dominica and I are not planning on leaving Newark until relatively late so that we are not stuck in the really awful holiday traffic although I am sure that it will still be pretty bad.

The office was almost completely empty today and there was no work to do at all which was pretty cool. I brought books with me and everyone was just hanging out having a good time. IT people are very social. People like to make fun of IT workers for being very antisocial but the reality is that we work in the field of information transfer – our whole world is about communicating! That is what many of us chose this profession because of.

One of my coworkers and I went out for a nice Thai lunch today when we couldn’t find anyone else around the office. Lunch was good and we had a good time. I also received two bottles of wine from my managers today. Really good wine for me too. A California Cabernet Sauvignon (J. Lohr Estates 2004 Seven Oaks Cab) and a Spanish Carinena – Syrah – Garnacha (Can Blau Montsant 2005.) I love dark, heavy, dry reds.

Next week is going to be incredibly slow at the office as well. There is just about nothing expected to be going on all week. I am only in the office for two days which is really cool. This is, by far, the biggest holiday “vacation” that I have ever had. I pretty much have eight days off out of the next ten! That is really cool. I just wish that I didn’t have so much driving to do during that time. Newark to Rochester to Utica to Newark to Utica to Rochester to Utica to Newark (there might be an extra Utica to Rochester in there depending on what we decide to do next weekend.) We really don’t have very solid plans yet for next weekend.

This is the first year since 1990 that I don’t have a New Year’s Party to attend!! Most years it has been me hosting them and, in fact, SGL was originally started as the New Year’s 2001 Announcement site back in the fall of 2000. But this year I have no New Year’s plans. I won’t know what to do with myself.

Dominica and I will most likely be leaving Newark between eight and nine o’clock tonight. The weather is supposed to be bad but I have had the weather be bad so many times this year when I go to drive from New Jersey to New York that I have given up on that battle all together. Our hope is if we leave late enough that Route 280 and 80 will not be overly congested. Once we get into Pennsylvania on US 80 we are normally in pretty good shape. US 380 and US 81 take you into such remote areas that the traffic thins out considerably and moves very well even on really heavy traffic days. We will probably take advantage of the time and location to grab dinner in Clarks Summit, PA at the Waffle House.

By six this evening there was just no one left in the office.  I decided to write the final wrap up for the blog for today so that I could post and be on my merry way.  It was well after six by the time I was finally able to leave the office and head for Newark.  What a long night it is going to be!