Christmas Decorations and Other Stuff

The day after Thanksgiving we take down the few Thanksgiving and Autumn decorations we have and put up the Christmas ones.  We're not a greedy-ass department store, so we keep our decorations in line with the actual holiday of the moment.

The Living Room's Christmas Tree

The Dining Room's Tree

Russ's Winterland Village on the Mantle

The Chris-Moose and the Decorated Stairway

Santa on the Table

Having finished the lanai over the summer, Russ has turned his attention to the kitchen.  He's ordered new appliances, new shelves, new floor tiles.  He's started to rip every thing up.  It's a mess right now...

We also took some time off to visit some friends.  They have two daughters...one around 8 and the other about 3.  The 3-year-old, so desperate to be part of the activities, eventually hauled out her fingernail painting kit and her mom if she wanted her toenails painted.  Mom, trying to be sweet and tolerant, explained that, "No, the grown-ups are talking and we don't need our toes painted."

At which point, I spoke up and announced, "Oh no!  In fact, I am in dire need of a new toenail painting!"

So Kate helped me remove my socks and gave me a beauuuuutiful paint job.  Then Garry got his done.  Then Russ!  Then she did us all a second coat!  We boys had the most awesome toes in the gym the next day!  But more to the point, it made Kate's night and she's talked about it for days afterward!  Go us!

Oh!  I nearly forgot this piece of Christmas treasure!  Last year, we let Garry decorate in a Nightmare Before Christmas style and he created this little treasure partially inspired by a funny Mr. Bean episode.  Yes, it's the manger scene being attacked by skeletal dinosaurs!

One of them is carting away the baby for later snacking!

And finally, our tree topper.  A couple of years ago, Russ took a standard angel topper, a hula boy doll from Hawaii, and a set of fiber-optic wings, and created our fabulous gay hula boy angel in a lava-inspired gown!

More Flash Playing

So I've been playing with Flash, trying to come to terms with trig (not my forte at all) and low-tech particle effects. One of the things I wanted to work on has been creating / faking a 3D effect. So after much toying and experimenting (remember, math is not my thing), I created this. It's not great...but not bad!

Thanksgiving Day

Well, nothing huge to report this time.  It was, by and large, the boys' first real Thanksgiving, so we made sure they stayed around to have one!

Russ--simply put--is amazing.  He went out and got his mom at 9am.  Got home around 10:30am and started cooking.  At 1:30pm...lunch was ready.  So I took a couple of pictures...

The meal was amazing.  Turkey, sweet potatoe slices, mashed potatoes, albino aparagus, bread, gravy, cranberry relish, stuffing.  In THREE hours!

Afterward, Garry went to his folks for another dinner.  Then after he came home, we returned Mom Ruth to the home, then took off to Toni's for her dinner...which for us, was just drinks.

Then we had to come home, because Russ and I had to work on Friday morning.  Garry, of course, had the day off.  Pshaw!



Happy Anniversary!

On a chilly November 17th, in 2007, Russ and Damian were dancing on a speaker at the Hippo when we glanced down and saw a goofy smile looking up at us. That was the night we met our Garry. Shortly thereafter, we all decided to keep each other and became The Three of We.

It's been an interesting 3 years, lots of fun, and a few trials and growing pains. But it's been worthwhile. We seem to be of the opinion(s) that we'll keep each other for a long time.

Happy Anniversary to We Three!

Flash Test

As I'm a great fan of Flash, I'm going to spend some time trying to figure out how to get my little Flash movies to play on Blogspot.

Bear with me....



Well, that was easy.

This is a little movie from when we took Garry to Disney and he saw his favorite character, Eeyore.

PS:
1: If you're on an iPad and all you see is a static image, it's because special Stevie is an idiot.
2: If otherwise and still can't see it, I've found that some places won't let me point to files from a "personal" site.  I'm working on a solution.

----

And another test....

Halloween at the Hippo!

Halloween 2010. 

So..we try to go to the Hippo every Halloween to see the fun costumes.  This time, however, there were a few differences...

First, it took place on a Sunday.  Really?  Sunday?  Not Saturday night...?  Nope.  Sunday night...a work night.  Wierd.

Second, our good friend Eileen came over earlier and we had a cookout around the lanai firepit.  Then it was off to the Hippo.

Damian and Eileen.  Renaissance and Steampunk

Garry's costume....the naughty cop...

Russ dresses up as.....Russ....

There were lots of fun costumes there.  We tried to count the number of Johnny Depps there were.  We counted at least 3 Mad Hatters, 2 Jack Sparrows, and 1 Edward Scissorhands.  But there were lots of fun folk there....

...tetris...

...the entire Alice cast...

 The Shooter-Girl.  We Love the Shooter Girl...

Sadly, it was a Sunday....before a work Monday morning...  So we didn't get to stay for very long.  Still, it was a fun night. 

Last Magic Show...?

For 20+ years I've been been a professional magician.  I've done shows stage shows, platform shows, walk around magic at parties and bar/bat-mitzvahs, and kids' birthday parties.  Honestly, I have probably the funniest birthday show on the planet.

But since getting a "real job" (to pay off those college loans), I've had to cut back on the number of shows I do.  Really cut back.  Let's just put it this way:

Every year, one of the shows I do is a Halloween kid show for the Greenmount Station restaurant.  The last show I did for anyone was last year's Halloween show for Greenmount.  So...after realizing that it's been a full year between shows, I've come to the realization that I'm essentially done with shows.  I just don't have time.

So...that time of year rolled around again and off I went to Greenmount for my yearly show.  Even though it had been a full year since the last show....it was still great.  All the jokes worked; all the magic was spot on.

60 minutes of this.  Yes, I'm good.

A 20-minute Needle Through Balloon routine.  Heavenly!

After the show, Chris (the owner) and I shared strategies for beating Plants vs Zombies on the iPad.

So it's more-or-less over.  I enjoy magic and performing, but the demands of the "real job" make it nearly impossible to continue.  I'll likely continue to do the occasional walk-around show--and Greenmount's walk-around, of course--but the shows bigger than that.....<sigh> ....it's pretty much all done.