New Year's Eve Cookies

Sheela has put herself in charge of our holiday sweets.  Stop by for a cookie if you get a chance.

Goals

I'm only working two days this week (and the first one is already done).  I have a very reasonable goal for today - the completion of one little report.  Unfortunately it isn't an interesting report so I'm having some difficulty getting in to it.  Once I get it done, and I will get it done, I will earn five more days of home time.  Again my goals for that time are very reasonable: repair one seam, patch one knee, clean one closet and replace two ironing board covers.  That's not even one task a day but again they aren't interesting tasks and I won't have a reward to motivate me.  I bet everything gets done except the closet.  I really hate cleaning closets.

 

Family Day

The kids didn't actually let us sleep late but they did let us laze around all day to make up for it. Santa brought the family a Wii system with a couple of extra game packs including Wii Fit. That pretty much set the tone for the whole day. I've jumped off the same mountain a hundred times (Ski jump) and still end up as a giant snowball half the time. I've been hit in the face with countless cleats and panda heads while trying to head soccer balls. I've bowled five strikes in a row and beaten at tennis (repeatedly) but I've done it all with the family so I'm pleased.

Girls

Christmas crown

We spent Christmas Eve with Farhana and Jazmine and their friends.  Merry Christmas everyone!!

Grand Prize Winner

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a friend from work and her husband won the grand prize in the Italian version of Funniest Home videos for this video of their cat playing dead.

Since I can't get the link to work here is the URL.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgsA7KgL4Wg

State Champs

Apparently they had a great time!

Candy Apples

Sheela and I have had a great girl's day.  We started with a Christmas lunch with a bunch of our friends.  Followed that up with some Christmas shopping.  Went to see the movie Twilight and then candied apples.  As soon as they cool enough we are eating them for dinner.... don't tell Sid.

 

Sid and Sunil went to Houston to watch the Allen Eagles play for the State Championship.  They will be back sometime tomorrow.

Finished

I finally finished reading all four of the "Twilight" books.  The third was my favorite but I did enjoy them all.  I decided that Sheela can read all four of them but large portions of the 4^th will go completely over her head so much so that she may not choose to read the whole thing.  That's okay too.  This does clear the way for me to finish my holiday shopping and then read "The Tales of Beadle the Bard", "Lost" and the "Eragon" series all of which Sheela received as birthday presents.

 

In the meantime I have promised myself that I won't start anything else until the out of town gifts have been dispatched and I haven't sent a single one yet.  Before I can start that though I have a vendor dinner to attend tonight (followed by late night grocery shopping) and a company dinner tomorrow night… maybe tomorrow at lunch I can squeeze in internet shopping.

 

Holiday Party Snap

It was a more casual party but we still took portraits.

New Toy

I downloaded Google Maps for my blackberry today.  I just called up my position (accurate within 600 meters) and can see that I am currently between terminals (on the airport bus.). Too cool.

The Castle

Unfortunately the rain never lifted here in NJ.  Our hotel was beautiful and I wanted to catch a picture.  It's built to look like a castle complete with towers and crennelations. I'll be heading back home today but may come this way again in a few months.

Back to the gate

It looks like we have a faulty engine valave so we've given up on flight and we are driving back to the gate for repairs.  No word yet on whether or not we can get off of the plane or if we just get to sit here.

NJ

I'm at the airport getting ready to fly to NJ.  I'll only be gone two nights so I have only one small bag with me but it is such a hassle to get through security that I'm going to check it anyway.

Surprise!!

Sheela was pleasntly surprised Sunday after the parade by coming home to a house full of her freinds for her surprise birthday party. It came of just about perfectly. She'd already chosen the cake, the pizzas, the party favors/entertainment (ceramic painting) and the guest list. We just moved the date up when she wasn't looking. I hope to have pictures added in a day or two.

Allen's parade

The cub scouts marched in our local parade on Sunday. I didn't even attempt pictures, but they were all duded up in their full uniforms (including hats) sitting on a decorated float and throwing candy to the crowds. They get a pretty good rush out of it. From the spectators point of view the day couldn't have been better. We sat on the curb in front of the library and enjoyed all 78 floats, four marching bands, two horse brigades and a full show of the city's finest.

Chocolate Croissant

The holiday party was in my humble opinion a huge success and we didn't get to bed until late.  But I was awake early so I walked up to the cafe to grab breakfast and I've brought it back to the pond to eat.  It is rather chilly this morning but the sun is shining and I'm feeling rather pleased with myself.  It's going to be another good day.

Post parade lunch

We've walked up to the Dallas Farmer's Market to have our traditional post parade lunch at El Mercado Dos Panchas.

The Parade is underway

Parade weekend

Mom and John arrived today.  They are picking the kids up from school then they will swing by the train station to pick me up.  I'm just dropping off a car so that they can come back on the train tomorrow if they want to.  Sid will meet us downtown in a few hours.  We'll all stay downtown and go to the parade in the morning.  I even remembered to bring the tickets (yay for me)!