What's this, another month gone by?  Well, at least I'm consistent about that
now.  When I last blogged, it was right before X-mas break for me.  On the
24th, my usual crew of buddies travelled to Dubuque to do some last minute
X-mas shopping and take a chance to enjoy each other's company.  Since we
rarely get to see each other, we always make the most out of the chances we do
get.  This year, X-mas eve was another snowy and then cold day.  Shopping went
by fairly quickly, as no one really had much to buy for once.  By noon, we
tried to find a steak place (another tradition) and found that we couldn't
find much open.  Sadly, we ended up at Ground Round which was 'ok'.  

X-mas day came and my brother came over with his girlfriend and her son. 
Since my sis couldn't make it, we ended up doing another get together on
Sunday for her with everyone by my brother who was going out of town for work
(had to go to Illinois to do maintenance contract).  Nothing too
earth-shattering for either celebration, just kindof fun to have set of
present openings to deal with.  And my waistline is still hurting from the
extra feasting.  Sadly, the holidays helped add 5 lbs to me, and not the good
kind of pounds.  *sigh*  Otherwise, spent most of the holidays reading the
Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy.  I bought the books for my nephew, but decided to
read them again as it had been 20 years since I last laid my eyes up JRR
Tolkien's epic tales.  It is amazing how many names from those books show up
on Bat in unusual places.

New Year's Eve was a small celebration over at Wade's house.  A
family-friendly gathering, and by 12:30 am, we already breaking up due to all
of us being old and tired.  Spent the evening playing party games and yakking
about Don's engagement.  Nasty old Don not telling us about it ahead of time,
we'll have our revenge on him for hiding that information.

Let's see, what else.  Oh yeah, started playing Okami over the break.  Got
about half-way through the game (I think) and decided to quit.  Pretty game,
but I was getting bored with the linearity and the stupid mini-games and
timing jumps that have to be made to continue the story line.  Quite honestly,
they could have tightened up the game a lot (alien rocket ships in feudal
Japan, WTF?!?).  I peaked ahead and saw that all of the bosses I was fighting,
I would have to fight again, in a row, to complete the game and said screw it.
 I may pick it up again when I finish with all the other titles I have.

So, the last few weeks I have been playing Odin Sphere instead and have been
enjoying that one a bit more than I did with Okami.    Work has been getting
increasingly busy.  Simultaneously support 4 programs now.  Weekends since New
Year's have been spent in town due to work and due to the nasty cold or snowy
or both weather we've been having.  In one stretch, we had -30F actual temps
for a couple of days.  I was happy my truck started and happy my furnace
didn't die on me.  Surprisingly enough, it didn't run continuously, but would
fire about every couple minutes though.  I even wrapped a hankerchief around
my face to keep my face warm.  As for the snowy part, over a foot on the
ground these days and I'm sure there is more to come in the coming weeks. 
Already looking like a repeat of last winter, hope we don't get those floods
again.

Hmm...let's see what else.  The same New Year's resolutions as the last couple
of years.  Here's to hoping one of them comes through for me.  Otherwise, just
surviving the winter and waiting for spring to come once again so I can play
outside and drop this weight off.  Today's blog brought to you by "Do You
Compute? - Donnie Iris