Missed out on my blog post to start out December because we spent most of the evening getting new cell phones!  Tasha and I both ended up with new Samsung Aliases.  We talked the guy down to getting the phones for $50 apiece (after mail-in rebate) and our numbers and plan stays the same.  These phones are cool because they flip open like a normal clamshell and also open like one of those widescreen texting phones… pretty slick.

Tomorrow I’m heading to the dojo after work to hopefully get to meet Sensei Yaguchi for the first time, so I’m pretty excited.  I’m going to take special care to get out of the office on time so I have plenty of time to get over to the dojo and hopefully not get a parking ticket like I did last time.

Last, but certainly not least, belated Happy Birthday wishes go out to my Dad!  Happy Birthday Dad!!

We made it back to Colorado safely!  Woot!!  There was only a little ice and snow in Nebraska this morning, but the wind was AMAZING.  The only reason Chicago is called The Windy City is because it was founded before they found Nebraska.

Too much turkey.  Wow.  Today we went out shopping for a little bit, I got a few presents picked up but once again refused to be taken in by the 5 AM door busters and other nonsense and will primarily do my shopping online this year.

We’re getting ready for Thanksgiving II, followed by some packing for phase one of our trip back to Colorado tomorrow.  I’m going to pick up the Saturday morning workout while I’m here, though!

Since I’m home on Thanksgiving break, I thought it best to pick up a workout or two since I’ve been largely unable to make it to the Denver dojo due to relocation and work thus far.  It was a somewhat small class, Sensei Quinn had me lead warmups and we went right into a very strong basics-centered class.  I ended up standing right next to a new white belt so I spent part of the class doing the white belt versions of the basics in order to give him an example to follow.  He kept getting screwed up when I was supposed to do the reverse punch with certain techniques, so I thought it best to do his techniques so he could get it down.  It turns out he’s had a few years of Muay Thai kickboxing and some boxing before that, I could tell from his technique that this wasn’t the first martial art he’s done.

The second class was quite small, but it was a quality group of black belts.  We did some sparring combinations and some partner training with a focus on the timing of the techniques within combinations.  Our focus was on putting techniques together in such a way to deter continued attacks, and I was somewhat happy with my timing tonight.

I did get to experience an interesting side-effect of mountain living… much more energy.  I noticed halfway through the first class I was breathing hard, but I wasn’t anywhere near as tired as I was during similar workouts before I left.  It was continually confirmed later in the class when we did partner drills… I felt like I could’ve done those all night at the rate we were going (at least from an energy perspective).  So that’s pretty fun.  I hope that continues to escalate as I get used to doing karate related things in Denver! It was good to see everyone again… I’m going to do my best to make it to Saturday morning this week before we hit the road back to Colorado!

I did get to sleep in just a bit this morning, before being woken up by a combination of dogs and noise from the front living room.  Tasha and I met with the ol’ bloggin’ gang at One World, taking the opportunity to surprise Scarab and Debra!  It was really fun and good to have the gang back together even for just a very short time.

Then, like a chump, I decided to head back to the office to get my expense report filed and attend a meeting so I could get ahead just a bit for the post-holiday week.  I ended up getting out of the office right around 4 o’clock, which means I’m flexing back a few hours on the day I have to work the week of Christmas.  I really have to learn when to not go to the office.

The day was rounded out by a visit to The Dukeses, where we had dinner and played a rousing session of World of Warcraft.  Tomorrow I have to take my car into the shop and go to karate, but those are the only two things on the docket!  Woot, vacation!

I’m at the rest stop in Iowa, where the only good thing to see is the free public wifi.  It seems my car is revolting against me in some unknown fashion once again, as my Service Engine Soon light came on about 1/4 tank into this trip.  It can’t be anything too serious, or else the Saturn folks would’ve found it when it was in for service earlier this week so I’m going to let it go until we get back to Colorado unless something severe happens.

That’s all for now!  Back to the highway!!

Last night, Tasha and I went to the Butterfly Pavillion near our house for an evening of classical music, wine, and to see their new exhibit.  I have to say, it was a lot cooler than I expected.  I want to go back there sometime during the day when I can see the butterflies in the tropical environment they have created, but it was still neat.

I used to really enjoy insects and butterflies when I was much younger, and this made my inner six year old very happy.  My inner 21 year old was not satisfied by their wine… I think I don’t like wine much.  I’d much rather have a Blue Moon on my couch with friends than drink overly bitter wine from some dude I’ve never met before.

Regardless, it was fun.  Tasha and I ended up at Rock Bottom afterwards for some food, so it was a very successful date night.  Woot!

Yesterday, Tasha and I got a check for our equity for our Pekin house!  Since we refinanced two years ago and the market was less than great, it wasn’t huge amount of money but it will offset a good portion of the cost of financing the new place in Colorado.

I officially started my Christmas shopping on 11/17… I think I might aim to do 90% of my Christmas shopping online this year, since hauling a big pile of presents to IL in December would be a pain.  I’ll probably order them and have them shipped to my parents house.

Finally with a break in the action, Tasha and I are going to listen to some classical music at the opening of a new exhibit at the Butterfly Pavilion near our house.  Not necessarily my cup of tea, but Tasha really wants to go so I’ll go look at some bugs and drink some complimentary wine.

Yesterday my new big-ass 52″ Samsung arrived!  The delivery guys moved it into the house, unboxed it, and left it sitting right by our new console for easy lifting and configuration.  I had to go pick up my car from the shop ($1225, ouch!) and get things set up for a night of Rock Band with my coworkers.

Tasha and I hauled up the new TV into place, got things hooked up and turned it on… to find a single pixel black line that runs up and down near the middle of the screen, slightly off to the left.  I was pretty mad about it, since in bright scenes it was really noticable… so I emailed 6ave (via Amazon) and decided to just lump it and play Rock Band tonight and be happy.

So we did and it was awesome.  Near the end of the night, I noticed that during the summary screen after a song I couldn’t see the line anymore… upon further inspection we had apparently rocked so hard that it healed my TV, no more black line visible.

I’m not the King of A/V equipment, so I’m not sure how/why this happened, but if it saves me having to deal with a return on an item this big I am a very, very happy camper!

Also: yesterday was our 12 year dating anniversary!  Hooray for continued relationship awesomeness!!

Also, also: yesterday was my good buddy Debra’s birthday, and I was too busy with errands to wish her a happy birthday!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEBRA!  WE LOVE YOU!!

Today was just a giant package of Unfortunate Events.  I did battle with my alarm clock and failed… I wasn’t late to work, but I also wasn’t as early as I would’ve liked.  I get my shower, proceed to my car and it refuses to start.

The workday went slowly and was less effective than I would have liked… we still got some good work done but I think we were all hoping for just a little more out of Monday.  It didn’t help that I was busy for part of the day continuing to do battle with my relocation company over stupid little details that I thought we had worked out.  Nothing major there, luckily… just annoyances.

Found out that the car needs three sensors replaced (two of which would’ve been needed for the emissions requirements in CO anyway), the serpentine belt needed replaced, and the spark plugs and wires were all in need of replacing since they were original with the car.  That, and I needed an oil change.  Luckily, Tasha was able to not only talk them into a free oil change, but also delivering my car to the emissions facility for testing.  All of this will cost me just over $1100.  That one hurt in the wallet a little, however this car has needed almost no repairs in the 5+ years that I’ve had it, and it sure beats car payments.

As the work day wound to a close, my coworkers were kind enough to give me a lift home, but in all the excitement I forgot to inform Tasha that I didn’t need picked up and was therefore, as the ancients put it, “up Shit’s Creek” for awhile.

I came home and had some mild success hanging our new window treatments in the bedroom, which hopefully purchased me a very small paddle with which to row up said Creek.  So I decided to curb my losses for the day and play some World of Warcraft tonight.  Which, as a result, caused me to screw up my November blog posting goal.  Dammit!

Tasha’s a saint for handling furniture delivery (new tv cabinet!), document management for relocation, car repairs, and my stupid behind today!  I really, *really* hope that tomorrow is boring and mundane.