
Yep, I'm back after a long period of not blogging. Why? I don't know. Just never got around to it. Other stuff to do. Anyway, yesterday was Christmas, so here's my summary of the day.
The day started at about 8am with my furry alarm clocks (Tiger & Jewel) waking me up. I got up, had breakfast etc. I was out the door around 9am or so. I arrived at the parents house around 930am. After greeting everyone and bringing in my pile of gifts, we proceeded to take some family pictures. For the next 20 minutes or so, it was a game of rearranging the family to every possible combination of two people, three people, and even a few of all four of us (taken using the timer function of the cameras. After everyone had their own family picture, we proceeded to the gifts.
As usual, its the war between the parents insisting the kids open their gifts first and the kids insisting the parents open their gifts first. Of course the kids won and we had the parents open their gifts first. Mom got a CD of games for the computer and a copy of Planet Earth from me. For dad, I got a copy of Windows XP Professional (We don't need no steenking Vista!). Yes, that's right. After all these years, my parents are finally 'legit' with Windows! My brother gave my dad a new jacket to wear, and a large new Ikea cutting board that he liked. He gave my mom a new light fixture for her ceiling fan and a gift certificate to JoAnn Fabrics (Mom's a quilter!). From both of the 'kids' we give dad a wireless keyboard and mouse for the computer. Mom also got a new ring to wear from Dad and Mom gave Dad a nice new Sealy Posturpedic computer chair. Man that's a comfy chair! I want one! :)
Once the parents were done unwrapping their gifts, the 'kids' got to open their gifts. I got a nice battery powered screwdriver, an Ikea Poang chair and footstool. I also got a copy of Animusic 1 and Animusic 2, but one of the DVDs was loose in the case and got badly scratched. The DVD was unplayable and so I had to mail it back to Amazon.com today for exchange. It'll likely be a few weeks before I get the replacements. What a bummer! Those are some really neat movies. My brother received several seasons of TV shows on DVD, another copy of Windows XP Professional, a remote control helicopter, and a Nintendo Wii. Yes, that's right. My bro managed to receive one of the most sought after gadgets of the year. I gotta thank my friend Dave for finding that Wii for me. I spent weeks looking but was unable to locate one.
By now, it was past noon and the presents were finally all opened. I went off to help the parents change the CD Key on their copy of Windows XP to use their new legit CD Key. I was able to get this changed and their computer completely updated. However, once I set the new CD Key, AVG Antivirus suddenly started complaining that it's serial number was invalid! This is weird, because I was using the free version of their antivirus and it never asked for a serial number. It just generated one. Apparently, it must generate that serial number based on the Windows XP CD key. I had to uninstall and reinstall AVG Antivirus to get that to work again. Grr. I also had a ton of trouble with their network printer. It refused to print from Windows, though it oddly printed perfectly from my brother's Mac Mini. I was never able to figure out how to fix that yesterday. My father and brother did manage to fix it today though by reinstalling the printer drivers.
Later, around 6pm we ate dinner. Dinner consisted of a Honey Baked Ham, mashed potatoes (made by me!), veggies and rolls. A very good dinner. I left later in the evening and took all my new stuff home. I was really tired. I went home and went straight to bed.
I also found out that a cousin of mine discovered my blog and hopefully is a regular reader now. Hi Miki!
As for that photo up at the top, that's the Ekle family. I'm the guy on the left. My brother, Bob is standing to my right, followed by my dad and my mom.
Hope everyone had a great Christmas!