Category: Holidays

Christmas Shopping

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When do you start shopping for Christmas? I don’t have a set time; just whenever I think about it. Usually that’s two weeks before the big day because I wait til the last minute and then end up buying my co-workers all the same stuff because it’s too hard to find unique gifts when you’re rushing to get everything done.

Not this year. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for things I think my co-workers might enjoy so I can get them something more personal than last year. Also, since I’m really bad at finding things for Joe in particular, I’ve been making mental notes on stuff I think he’ll like and already have a pretty decent list. Now it’s just a matter of timing so I can order stuff in advance, but not too far that we’re screwed if something has to be returned.

I did purchase Christmas gifts today for two different people, however, just because I’ve learned what may be available now might not be in a month or two. Since they aren’t mechanical in nature, I’m not worried about passing the date for returns either. I just hope I know my recipients as well as I think I do because I’d hate to be that person who gives crappy gifts.

Festival of food

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We contemplated going to the Balloon Festival today like we did last year, but neither of us felt like getting up at the butt-crack of dawn. Besides, it looked to be the same exact balloons as last year and the sky was hazier. So maybe that will be an every few years type of outing.

We ended up at the mall earlier so I could look for some socks. I also got a pair of purple jogging pants and a cute purse.

Later in the day we decided to check out the Taste of Lombard which we’ve never been to before. Other than not finding close parking, we really liked it. The park they use for the festival grounds is huge so everything is spread out really nice. In addition to a ton of food, they have lots of tents to escape the brutal sun, carnival rides and games, live entertainment, and bingo.

The first thing we did was eat. I got a yummy steak taco and Joe got a beer brat. We sat down and listened to the band onstage for awhile before we walked over to the bingo tent. We didn’t win anything, but it was still fun. I always love bingo! After that we walked around a bit to check out the rides, then went back and listened to some more music, including the Lombard Idol, a singing competition. We only caught the beginning which included girls ages 10-12. I felt rather embarrassed for a few of them because they weren’t very good. But I have to hand it to them for getting up there and trying. I was also a bit surprised by one of the under 12 girls who was walking the stage and carrying on like a wannabe Britney Spears. Way too sexual for her age, if you ask me. By that time we had been there for over two hours, so we decided to leave.

For dinner I grilled some burgers, onion rings, and fries. Yes, I used the actual grill. They came out delicious too.

We’re not planning on trying to find somewhere to watch fireworks tonight. I do like fireworks, don’t get me wrong, I just hate the whole process of having arrive early to get a good spot and then waiting around forever til they actually start. I think we’ll just wait til our town has their summerfest; we can catch two fireworks shows from our driveway. Yes, we really are that lazy!

Hope you had a fun 4th of July!

HD & My New Year’s Resolution

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Ever since getting the plasma, we’ve been watching as much tv in High Def as possible. This has led us to watch more educational stuff because there’s cool High Def channels like Discovery HD, HD Theatre (which broadcasts all sorts of older IMAX films), and PBS in HD that we never had access to before.

One of the most recent shows on PBS was Chicago from the River: The New Boat Tour and Chicago by `L’: Touring the Neighborhoods. Both these shows were very interesting to watch. I had forgotten how enjoyable it is learning the history and trivia behind places you’ve been and the city you’ve grown up in. It makes me yearn for Spring so I can pull out the dusty 20D and capture some historical Chicago sights. I have no doubt that one day I will no longer live here, so I want to be sure I’ve seen everything I want to see.

Part of my New Year’s resolution is to stop talking about places I want to go and just go already.

On my list this Spring/Summer:

Millennium Park
Graceland Cemetary
Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park
Long Grove Confectionery Company
Cascade Drive-In

I’ll probably be adding to this list as I think of more.

New Year’s Prep

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My co-worker convinced me to go to Party City during lunch today to buy some New Year’s decorations, so I made her come with me. I blame her for the $30 charge to my Discover. I don’t mind, though, as long as the kids enjoy themselves. I wonder if they will actually be awake come midnight or not. Anyone care to wager on it?

This one employee at the store really shouldn’t be working in an environment where she deals with customers. She got mad that she was called from the stockroom to help check us out and said loudly, “I am never going to get anything done with all these customers coming in”. We’re so sorry for wanting to give you our business. I looked at the lady waiting behind me and said, “Nice of them to complain about customers in front of us, huh?”

Gifts

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If you check my Flickr account, you may already know I got #2 on my Ultimate Wish List from Joe for Christmas. It’s not the exact one I wrote about, but I picked that one for it’s price, not performance, so I trust Joe’s judgment. So far, it’s great, so I don’t care. It was a great deal too: only $229 after rebate.

We went to Target on Christmas Eve and picked up a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse in black to complete the look. The keyboard has these hot keys at the top that can be programmed to launch different programs on a single push. Although I didn’t buy it for that reason, they are pretty neat. The mute and volume buttons are especially helpful. Plus it’s nice to kick back and type from my lap when chatting.

I am very pleased with the new monitor as well, although it is taking me a bit to get used to how bright the screen is and the 1280 x 1024 resolution I’m forced to use as anything else looks fuzzy on the lcd. I hear that’s nothing new, but I wasn’t expecting it. I definitely have more screen real estate now, however, so there is a bright side to that.

In addition to the monitor, Joe also got me a foot spa, two cds, some candy, a yo-yo, and an unauthorized 2-DVD Cure biography which I haven’t watched yet as I’m hoping we’ll be getting a home theatre system soon. My husband is just so good to me!

I feel rather bad since I didn’t get as much for Joe because he forbid me to buy him a guitar like I wanted to. So he got a book of Sudoku, The Chronicles of Narnia hard-cover, a Sox World Series gold coin, and something else that has yet to even ship. Before he purchased the monitor we had spent the same amount of money on one another, but now I feel like an ass for getting more presents. I keep telling him he better get a guitar soon!