Posts tagged holidays
Happy Chrismahanukwanzaka
Dec 28th
School is over for this semester and I don’t have to go back until Jan. 18. This makes me happy, but I’ve got a whole stack of drug cards I’m trying to memorize in preparation for the next couple of semesters. I ended up with 2 As and 2 Bs, which kind of makes me sad, cause I was hoping for at least 3 As. Oh well, I guess I’ll just be a very mediocre paramedic.
Rest assured with you call 911, you’ll get my very average skills to help you.
Actually, it was the 2nd highest grades in the class, but I’m pretty sure I could drink the other guy under the table, so that makes me feel better.
Christmas was good. The folks came down and I chauffeured my father around since he has had some knee trauma and surgery and is on crutches. Which was also very entertaining because of the 3 inches of snow/ice/wintry mush that has been on the ground. My dad is a big guy, too, and trying to fit him in the back of my Honda Civic with a leg that cannot bend is the stuff comedic sitcoms are made of.
We got a new kitten for Christmas. There is almost too much cuteness to handle. His name is Bing. Now we have Frankie and Bing as in Sinatra and Crosby. Yes, even more cuteness.
I’ve been playing World of Warcraft on my break. Let me just emphasize the complete awesomeness of this game and the massive time sink that it is. But I’ve managed to get several friends hooked on it, which doesn’t make me feel so bad spending my own time on it.
Merry Christmas!
Dec 26th
Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and received what they wanted and not what they deserved.
It’s been busy around here lately, hence the lack of updates, but hey… it’s my website and I’m generally a lazy person, so that’s just not a good combination for frequent updates.
What did Santa bring to the Bell household? Well, not too much this year, mainly because Santa is poor and has a low-paying part time job and is going to school. But he did manage to bring Gwyn a new watch, and some new violin strings as well as a violin book to brush up on her l33t violin playin’ sk1llz.
He brought me more than he should have, but it is all appreciated, mainly because it all has to do with alcohol in one form or another.
I got a nice bottle of V.S.O.P Courvoisier Cognac , a new Vodka from the Netherlands, I wanted to try out called Vox. Speaking of which, the Netherlands is also where my #1 favorite Vodka is produced, Ketel One.
I also got a couple bottles of wine, from Charles Krug and Gundlach Bundschu and some nice oversized crystal red wine glasses with a decanter from some company whose name I can’t remember.
So as you can see, people think I’m a boozer. Which is fine, because I like to try the quality stuff, that is harder to come by. And it makes buying presents for me that much easier!
cVolz sent me the bottle of Charles Krug, a red flashy siren light to stick on top of my car so I can practice being a firefighter and a plastic commando knife for Gwyn so she can practice stabbing him. Which was all very thoughtful, but now we have to send him something, according to my wife. Which really doesn’t make any sense to me, mainly because I’m a guy, I suppose, but I think it’ll be something really cheap. Like tic-tacs.
My classes start in a few more weeks (January 12th), so I’ll officially be a student… again. I really hope this will be the last time.
I got to play through Planescape: Torment (old school!), and Max Payne 2 (meh), and now I’m going through Star Wars: Knights of the old Republic and the C&C Generals expansion, Ground Zero.
Off to work!
So busy…
Nov 21st
I’ve been remodeling my grandmother’s house and trying to get it done before Thanksgiving. So far, I’ve stripped off her old wallpaper, removed the ceramic tile and thin-set mortar from the floor, patched the floor with quick-set cement, patched and sanded the sheet rock with mud and applied the first coat of paint to the walls.
The walls still need a second coat, the trimming and doors need to be painted and touch up work needs to be performed. I also need to lay the new ceramic tile and grout and seal them.
And this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this so it’s a bit of a learning experience.
I’m also trying to get it done before Thanksgiving so I’m running out of time.
On another note, I picked up an external firewire / USB 2.0 hard drive from Maxtor to back up my files and transfer between computers. It’s come in real handy.
What else is going on? My man-steak cdawg hopped back over the pond again and is back to the land of fruits and nuts with Arnie as govna’. Good luck with that.
Apparently he’s all upset about politics and what-not. Good thing I have no opinions.
My other pal… well… I’ll call him my limp biscuit is going to Australia soon… which is cool, cause it’s a place that I’ve always wanted to go. And at least you have to admire his dedication to the art of mocking public works.
Ooohh… And I almost forgot. I found a pretty good bar here in town that is 1) well stocked 2) has $3 Ketel One martinis and 3) has Guiness on tap. The only downside is their Guinness is like $6.50 a pint! WOWZA.
*sigh
Jan 31st
It’s been very busy since Christmas. Mainly because my EMT classes have started. It is actually a very substantial amount of work for just one class (well, technically 3 classes… lecture, lab and clinical). I think I can say that this is the most amount of effort and time that I’ve ever put into a class. Funny thing is, I never expected it to be *that* interesting, but I’m really enjoying the medical aspect of firefighting.
Of course the pre-reqs for the class were a bit intimidating at first. Not so much a single one, but once taken together and given the limited amount of time to complete them, it was quite an interesting few weeks.
I had to get something like 8-10 shots to get my vaccinations up-to-date. And I had to get a couple of titers drawn to get my blood tested. I forget them all now, but after you get measles, mumps, rubella, tetnus, TB, hep A, hep B all in one seating, you’re not feeling too good the next day.
And then there is something like $500 in fees and equipment you’ve got to buy. Oh, and I almost forgot I had to get my AHA CPR cert up-to-date again. Apparently they don’t let you use one that 7 years old. :-/
Oh well. I’m whining, but I’m actually enjoying the classes.
OH! I almost forgot. I haven’t completely given up my geeky roots. I picked up one of these (don’t worry, it was hardware credit… mostly) about 3-4 weeks ago and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. It’s got integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b support as well as a biometric fingerprint reader and some other nifty features. My only complaint is that the 802.11b software driver is a weeeee bit flaky. HP is supposedly working on a patch or ROM update for it, so I’m still holding out hope.
Here’s a swell picture of it:
Happy Happy Joy Joy
Dec 26th
Hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season. I couldn’t find a good Christmas picture, so I had to steal one from a good friend of mine. Hope he doesn’t mind. 
And for all of my Jewish readers… Happy Hanukkah.
What did Santa bring me?
Well, I got some J.R. Tolkein books (The Silmarillion, The Hobbit), a nice new jacket, a mahogany humidor (holds 50 cigars), a very nice stainless steel cigar cutter, a cast iron replica fire truck clock, a couple of firefighter books, clothes, etc.
Ooh yeah. And the promise of a nice 30 year old bottle of Port Tawny or 30 year old single malt scotch. Either the Glenmorangie on this page (recommended by my dad) or the Fonseca Port here, unless someone has some other suggestions..
And about a month ago, I picked up a new router / firewall for the home network. It’s the Nexland Pro800 Turbo. Aside from the obvious firewall / router capabilities, it supports unlimited IPsec VPN tunnels (you know, because I need unlimited tunnels), and has the ability to bind two broadband connections (DSL to DSL, DSL to Cable, Cable to Cable) into one big fat pipe or you could set them up for failover. Because, let’s face it, bradleybell.com needs 100% uptime. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to use 2 broadband connections for it, but it’s neat to know it’s there.
Well, I don’t have much else to share, other than just leave you with this.
Merry almost Christmas
Dec 12th
Happy Almost Christmas!
It seems like Thanksgiving was just here and now it’s only 13 more days until Christmas. What’s up with that?
We’ve decided to go a bit minimalist (read: cheap) this year as we’ll be moving in the next 6 months or so and the whole job situation is up in the air, so no big ticket purchases. Which is O.K. with me. That just means I have to actually put more thought into a gift, when I usually just throw money at it.
And my classes are nearly over! Can I get a big w00t! Raise the roof! Oh yeah!
One more thing. I slightly increased the font size of the regular text on the site. I must be getting old, cause the old way was just getting too hard to read.
Dec 28th
Going to be a short update tonight, cause it’s late and I’m lazy tired.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas. Wasn’t too shabby here. Keeping with my Microsoft whoredom, I snagged an XBox so I’m pretty happy. Halo is the bomb (I believe that’s what the kids are saying nowadays). Been playing it like a madman. It’s all about the warthog baby.
Got the other typical Christmas stuff as well… clothes, money, couple of movies, etc.
The wife got a nice violin from Santa. I’m beginning to suspect that she’s seeing him on the side. Anyway, so sounds of… err… something… have been filling the house. 
Time to scope out a few violin lessons, I suppose.
Supposed to do something on New Years although I think it’s still up in the air as to what that actually is.
Dec 16th
Had a LAN party today. Was pretty darn fun. I missed Quake3. It was nice to be fragging in there again. Played a little Serious Sam 2 and Return to Castle Wolfenstein as well. Nothing like killing a few Nazi’s on a Sunday afternoon.
Wednesday will be the “Best. Day. Evar.” ™. If you have to ask why, you can’t be my friend…
LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!
Spent all day Saturday Christmas shopping for the wife.
Saturday night I went ice scating. Holy cow that puts a lot of pressure on your ankles. I’m insanely sore from the waist down, but it was pretty darn fun.
Dec 1st
Been playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein quite a bit recently (in between working late and what-not). The graphics are amazing as well as the sound. The play and plot are slightly above average. All-in-all, it’s making for quite an entertaining game, though.
I’ve been taking mad pictures with my new flash on my digital camera, so I’ll be uploading lots and lots more pictures over the next few weeks. Overall, I’m very pleased with it. It can handle just about any type of lighting situation you can throw at it and it’s easy to use to boot!
Starting to get the Christmas bug as it’s getting pretty close to that time of year again. It’ll be a little depressing not going back east this season, but I guess I’ll get over it.
And the more and more stuff I read and hear about the XBox, the more I want to get it…..
Nov 25th
HAPPY TURKEY DAY!!!
Well, a little late, but better than never, I suppose. Our Thanksgiving went really well. Ate an unhealthy amount of food. But it sure was nice being off for 4 days. I’ve still got to figure a way out to get paid for not working… If anyone comes up with a solution, let me know… mkay?
Continuing in my daily series of comedic computer tragedies, my web server died last week. I lost a little bit of data, but luckily, the web sites were all safe (as well as the MP3′s… )
So that should explain the short absence… well, that and Civilization III. Quite possibly the most addicting game of all time. Time passes sooooo quickly when you’re playing it’s scary. Twice this week I’ve been up past 4AM playing and yesterday it was 6AM. The weird thing is, I didn’t even know it was that late (early?).
Anyway, I’m going to try and lay off of it awhile and get some Return to Castle Wolfenstein in. So far, it looks really amazing.
