Benjamin & Santa

Took Benjamin to see Santa tonight. It was his first time, and it went better than I ever could have imagined. Benjamin took a few minutes to warm up to Mr. Claus, but once he did it was great. Here's a picture and some video I took while we were there.

I'm Beginning To Spend A Lot Like Christmas

Are you in the spirit of the Holiday's yet? I'm getting there. It always seems to be the financial aspect of Christmas that tries to rain on my parade. But, I survive every year and am sure this year will be no different.

I kind of got in to it with Holly a little bit on Sunday. She wanted to put up a real Christmas Tree, and I'm kind of opposed to it. It's not that I don't like Christmas Trees, or anything like that. It gets back to the financial thing. I have a hard time spending $60 for a dead tree. Is it just me that feels that way? We have a perfectly good, in my opinion, artificial tree in the basement. Why can't we just schlep that up the stairs and put it in the living room? Heck, it's got built in lights, so we wouldn't have to waste time putting lights on it.

Well, Holly got quite upset with me over this. I thought I was going to have to get out of the car and walk home, but it didn't get that bad. We ran an errand that needed to be done and then I pulled in to the tree lot and told her to go find out what the prices of the trees are this year. See, I had a feeling that the trees, like everything else in the world, had increased in price. Much to my surprise, I was wrong. Tree prices started at $28 and went up to $88. I agreed, at that point, that if we could find a nice tree for $28 that we could get it. So, we looked around for quite a little while and did find one. Turns out that it's a very nice tree. It smells good, it's full, green and has lots of sap dripping on to the carpet.

With that being said, it's still $28 for a dead tree... Merry Christmas.

Benjamin & Elmo Sing Jingle Bells

Pre Thanksgiving Hijinx

Took a family trip to Target tonight. Benjamin wanted to try on some hats. Here are a couple of pictures that I took with my LG Voyager from Verizon Wireless.

Something Catchy From Depeche Mode

Do you ever get the idea that the Lions are God's idea of a practial joke? I think he's got a pretty good sense of humor!

I seem to have become addicted to FaceBook. That's what takes away from my blogging. For that, I apologize to all (both) my faithful readers.

I think that Thursday will be coach Rod's last day in charge of the Lions. It's my opinion that he will suffer the same fate that Mooch did when he was in Detroit. He was fired after losing on Thanksgiving. It's time for Rod to go. He seems to be a good dude, but he's in over his head.

All you Lions fans that think the Lions need to go out and get Donovan McNabb this off season, get a clue. If McNabb were worth having, he wouldn't have gotten benched on Sunday.

All you Lions fans that think the Lions need to pick a quarterback with the #1 pick in the draft, also need to get a clue. There are so many holes on this team that starting with a QB is the last thing they need to do. Here's what I do with the five picks the Lions have in the first three rounds - OL, LB, OL, DB, best available.

Have you seen the new Peyton Manning, Master Card "Priceless" commercial? It's pretty funny. Not as funny as the Ozzy Osborne commercial for World of Warcraft, but it's pretty funny. Not as funny as the Ozzy Osborne cell phone commercial, but it's right up there.

In case I don't get a chance, Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Mergers Suck! The Suckiness of Mergers

I've been a long time subscriber to, and long time fan of, XM Radio. However, the merger with Sirius is now complete and I don't like it. First off, they changed all my channel names to match those of Sirius. Da Bone Yard is now Hair Nation, Ethel is now Alt Nation, Top Tracks is now Classic Vinyl... Why? Why did that have to be done? Second, and most important of all, Alt Nation blows. Ethel was the best station on any radio in the world, and the replacement for it blows. It's just awful. The best part about Ethel was all the new music they played. I cannot begin to tell you how much great new music I have on my iPod that I discovered on Ethel. I swear to you that every time I turn on Alt Nation they are playing Blink 182. Where's the new there??? Heck, they're not even a band any more. As for Hair Nation, I don't know how much I'm going to like that, either. Da Bone Yard played AC/DC, Metallica, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I don't think they have a place on Hair Nation. They're not typically thought of as Hair Bands. Hair Bands are Poison, Faster Pussycat, Slaughter, LA Guns, White Lion and Winger. Do the other, non-hair, rock bands have a place now?

Dude, mergers suck!

Is there any candy better than Smarties? I think not.

Hall of Fame Questions & A Big Congratulations!

Do you think Kurt Warner is a Hall-of-Famer? I do.

Do you think Chris Osgood is a Hall-of-Famer? I do.

Do you think Rasheed Wallace is a Hall-of-Famer? I think I do.

Congratulations to Johnny Benson for winning the Craftsman Truck Series Championship last night. Great race with an incredible finish. Benson beat Ron Hornaday by four tenths of a second to win the championship. Another 200 yards, and Hornaday might have won the title.

Enjoy your Saturday!

Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends!

Hey there. Welcome to my new home. Come on in and make yourself comfortable. Coasters are next to the TV and the drinks are in the fridge. As you know, or may not know, my old home OneGreatLake.com has closed up shop. I think it had something to do with the government bailout of AIG, but I'm not certain. Regardless this is my new home. I hope that you'll stop by often, kick the tires and let me know what you think. This is where I'll come to vent my spleen, share my thoughts and ask for your opinion. You may not always agree with what I have to say, and I hope that will start some dialogue between us. There's always a place to leave your comments, and it's all at no cost to you. I welcome your complaints, comments and encouragement.

Here's a little something that I got in the email yesterday. Usually I just delete these things and don't forward them on to everyone on my email list. This time I thought I'd post it here. No real reason, just to take up some space and save me from having to think about things to write about. Of course, I do have to think of my one word answers, but such is life.


1. Where is your cell phone? Charging

2. Your significant other? Holly!

3. Your hair? Oily

4. Your mother? Mary

5. Your father? Lanny

6. Your favorite thing? Family

7. your dream last night? Probably

8 . Your favorite drink? DietDew

9. Your dream/goal? retire

10. What Room are you in? Livchen

11. Your hobby? breathing

12. Your fear? dunno

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? alive

14. Where were you last night? home

15. Something that you aren't? patient

16. Muffins? blueberry

17. Wish list item? wealth

18. Where you grew up? Webberville

19. Last thing you did? scratched

20. What are you wearing? Clothes

21. Your TV? HUGE

22. Your pets? fish

23. Friends? Lots

24. Your life? Awesome

25. Your mood? tired

26. Missing someone? yep

27. Your car? Aztek

28. Something you're not wearing? smock

29. Your favorite store? Target

30. Your favorite color? Green

31. When is the last time you laughed? today

32. Last time you cried? 10/13/06

33. Who will resend this? dunno

34. One place that I go to over and over: work

35. One person who emails me regularly: Laura

36. My favorite place to eat: Mexican

37. One place I would like to go right now: Kauaii

38. One person I think will respond: dunno

39. One TV show I watch all the time: Office