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Comments
Congrats to Michael on the school choices. Sounds like great times ahead!
As for meeting in Manhattan, depending on what day I can probably show up.
Mark
welllll ... dad (her ex) was here to see the boys from friday afternoon until just before noon today ... he stayed with us and she went to stay with her sister ... first visit they've had with dad since a few minutes june 8 ... we took everyone .. (and YES I mean EVERYONE) to breakfast this morning ...
so .. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season ...
Brenda
I was thinking Saturday might be better...I can drive in from Jersey and find my usual parking spot within 5 minutes. I'll keep an eye out.
Best Holiday wishes to the entire Subaru Crew, and bless the lurkers, one and all.
My life at work has been crazy ever since my company laid of 40% workforce in early Oct. My whole group survived, but we're so short on people and have loads of work to do! I surely hope 2008 will be better job-wise!
The good news though that my office has moved, and I have now much better commute and not putting as many miles as before on my good old Forester'06.
-mike
Brenda- I agree with Jeff, you truly embody the Christmas spirit! It's one thing to "intellectually" know what's best for the grand kids, it's another thing entirely to put aside your personal feelings and welcome into your home your daughter's ex. We're proud of you!
-Frank
Congrats to Serge and all the incoming college students that were accepted, I remember how happy I was to get those acceptance letters.
2007 was a great year for me, and I'm blessed and thankful. I hope my good fortune rubs off on the Crew, may 2008 be as good for you as this year was for me.
Serge - Have you picked a day for NYC?
Bob, There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about you & your wife Deb. I wish your family a happy and healthy new year.
I hope to see you at the car show in NYC again this year.
Paisan - When do you expect to be in my neck of the woods?
Bob
I think Saturday or Sunday...Friday is no good..too much stuff to do in Jersey. What works for you guys...majority rules! (democracy in action)
Any how, she opens her gifts and closely inspects what wrapping paper was used for each gift, looks for price tags, even inspects the hand writing on each gift tag. Hysterical.
A little later she comes to me with a notebook and asks me to write my name. She folded the top of the paper back, so I would not see what she had written there. It said "Clues".
She was asking me so that she could compare my handwriting to the one on gifts from Santa!
Fortunately I was one step ahead of her, so I used cursive to sign my name, while I'd used generic block letters for Santa.
I also told her that kids only receive gifts if they believe.
I think next year I'll have to tell her all about Saint Nicholas, the Patron Saint of Charity, who truly did exist.
-mike
We use specific paper for Santa and he brings us grown ups gifts as well. The tags are computer generated in red and green so no issues with the writing.
Besides who else but Santa was able to get a Wii this year??
Serge
but for some reason my husband has been strutting around the house for about 3 months asking, "Who da man ?!!!" ....
(seems Santa stored it in the closet about 3 months ago ...)
I'm good either day, whatever you folks decide on. Sunday would be a bit easier, but no big deal. When and where?
Mark
(seems Santa stored it in the closet about 3 months ago ...)
That's funny. I got my on the day after Thanksgiving. I swore I'd never be one of those nuts who get up at 4 AM to go shopping. Well I was lying awake in bed at 5:30 and figured what the heck - just get up and go. I went to the local Game Stop at 6:15 and was the 25th or so in line. They got 33 of them.
I was this close to e-baying it as they were going for $500+.
I could not find one. Looked everywhere.
I didn't get up at 5am, but we did check several stores, look on-line, and shopped around a lot.
So the funny thing is Santa brought us a nice 42" LCD HDTV, but we have no Wii to play on it!
My little brother is going to lend me his until he sets up his new house in February. So I have to find one by then.
It's crazy. You can't even find them on-line. Wal-Mart has them for delivery in February if and only if you buy 5 games, so it's over $500. Yikes.
The man, indeed.
I meet you guys the next time whenever that is.
Have a great time in NY
we already have a 62" TV in the basement ...
the boys got up and were checking out the Santa stuff ... and some of it was wrapped up in the special Santa paper ... the last thing they opened was a Wii game .. and the 8 year old is looking like .. wha??? ... we don't HAVE a Wii ... we have a PS2 ... and husband is saying .. why would Santa bring you a Wii game? .. think he got mixed up? ... and the 8-year-old goes ...MAYBE IT'S DOWNSTAIRS ON THE TV!! .. so he runs down the stairs with the 12-year-old on his heels ... the game console was sort of to the side and behind the TV ... the kids are looking around and the 8-year-old spots MORE games on top of the compact fridge downstairs ... and about that time the 12-year-old spots the console ... they were excited kids that's for sure!!!
AND ... grandma and the "grand poohbah" (as he says he's too young to have grandchildren) had already been up an hour before the kids testing it out .. lol
it's FUN !!!
(although I am NO good at the cow races ....)
we had already been up an hour before the kids testing it out
How's that possible? When I was their age I was laying in bed awake well before the crack of dawn waiting for the go-ahead that we could go into the living room to see what Santa how brought us.
-Frank
http://www.gamestop.com/gs/help/wii.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1&
The flat panel is for upstairs. I went with an LCD HDTV because it's a bright room and Plasmas have glare, and are generally better for dark rooms.
I'm going to call my little bro and borrow his until February, hopefully supply will improve by then. There's an EB Games store near me so I'll ask them if they have a similar deal going on now.
Looks like Sunday is going to be out for me as well. Just found out my niece is leaving for Israel next weekend so Sunday is the only day every one is free to get together. Hopefully another time.
Mark
lol ...
and to answer someone earlier about us being up BEFORE the kids ... their dad was here for the few days before xmas and had let them stay up very late, but they popped up at the usual 6-7 AM every morning so they were TIRED by xmas eve... we told them they could NOT come downstairs before 7 ... but our clock usually goes off at 5 so even though we slept late it was only 6:30 when we got up .. kids didn't stumble down til about 7:30 ... so when we heard them, we turned off the game and ran upstairs ... lol
and other than about 10 min on xmas evening, it was the only time I have played the Wii ... I'll get on once they 'cool off' a bit .. or I'll invoke adult privelege ...
I tried that game where you ride the cow (?) on the Wii at the mall. It was cool. Also tried the bowling game.
What an interface. It gets you up on your feet, no doubt.
Still bummed. If anyone finds out how to secure one please let me know!
Tell her to have a great time. Is she doing Birthright Israel, which is free, or March of the Living? Michael may do Birthright next summer...we have to look into it.
Enjoy yourself...we will be back most likely in the spring to check out UMass at Lowell, so hopefully there will be a better turnout.
If you want, I'll ask her about Birthright. Maybe she can help get Michael in?
As for getting together, we'll definitely have to find a time next time you folks are up North.
Mark
Life's been busy with both work and kids. Our two girls are now 4 (Erina) and 1.5 (Emi). Erina is really filling in the role as big sister and watching over Emi. It's just great to see them play and interact with each other now.
Work wise, I've been fairly busy. I was promoted to Marketing Director this year so I've been working odd hours and traveling quite a bit managing our global team.
Car-wise, the Legacy GT Wagon is still going strong. I have about 49K on it now -- my commute has dropped a bit due to more time working from home and on the road. I decided to give it some TLC with a full detail and some new shoes. As you all know Prodrive is closing their US operations and I was able to pick up a set of some 18x8 PFF7s for a relatively good price. They're on their way and I'll share pics once they are on.
My wife's Jetta is still hanging in there at 95K. It recently needed a new seal put in due to an oil leak. We're counting down the days until we replace it with something a little more practical. As much as my wife has resisted, she's finally come to terms with going to a minivan in the near future.
Anyway, that's it for now -- hope everyone else is doing well.
juice -- I saw that new 09 Forester on nabisco and it looks sharp! When are you going to buy it!? ;-)
Ken
Our friends' rather sweet daughter, Jessica, held to the Santa story until ten but was growing doubtful. Her mother had been scattering tinsel and glitter across the lounge ready for Christmas and cleared the fireplace Christmas Eve, putting boots on to take the ashes outside, carefully walking over newspapers to the door. As she returned to the very sooty hearth, one of the children stirred so she ran upstairs to check them, standing by the foot of each child's bed. When she got downstairs she discovered she had left sooty, glittery boot-prints behind, persuading Jessica for another year.
I'd point out to your daughter that Santa does not come to kids who don't believe in him. She sounds pragmatic enough to understand the benefits of keeping the secret from her brother.
Cheers
Graham
That'll actually be the wife's primary car. She likes the 09 pics even better than I do.
The van is very practical. It actually gives you freedom with your other choice of vehicle.
The van is our family car. You might even say it's the kids' car, because I still commute in the Miata.
Brake experts - check the Crew Cafe if you have a minute, I need some advice there.
Graham - LOVED the tale of the boot prints.
Cheers! :shades:
Cheers!
-Frank
I'm still teaching, driving a Subaru (Legacy 2005 Wagon ltd) with now 50,000 miles and fooling around with my Mac computers.
Bruce
That was my old chat welcome when you'd show up.
Good to "see" you again.
-mike
There's a resolution for me.
At first I was gonna go with "find a Wii".
Try to figure out a way to make the Wii part of the chats :P
Haaaa.
-mike
Juice, i've been told more Wii's will be available by February (one of my research assistant's son works for Nintendo here in Seattle). Things are always nuts at Christmas!
Otherwise, check the Best Buy website Saturday night for the next weeks circular. They will say if they have Wii's to sell. Just show up when the store opens on Sunday morning and pick one up. I think Target usually gets a bunch of them as well and is another way to find them.
Here's an online website that will tell you some of the stores that have them instock as well http://techbargains.com/buywii.htm
As for using it on your LCD, Wii's unfortunately are not HD, so it doesn't look better (except for being larger). Just be careful you don't accidently throw the controller at the screen while playing (oh yeah, try not to hit each other as well!)
It's a fun console- perhaps as much fun for the parents as the children!
tom
I'll wait it out a bit longer.
I thought about the PS3 just for the Blu Ray player included.
Anyone else having deja-vu? It's VHS vs. Betamax all over again! This time it's HD DVD vs. Blu Ray.
And this time all the Sony Pictures films will be exclusively in their format. I wonder which ones BlockBusters and NetFlix will carry?
Yeesh. I purchased ours on Black Friday at Game Stop (6:30 AM I was in line) for $249 with the basic Wii Sports. We then purchased Wii Play (which included a Wii-mote), Madden 08 and Barbie Princess something or other.
Now I want to get Need For Speed!!
My daughter has sort of outgrown Barbies, she's into Webkinz now.
The one that would've been a big hit was Hannah Montana which my 8 YO daughter adores but the game was based on lip syncing and shopping. I was hoping for a little more substance.
She really likes boxing, tennis and baseball on Wii Sports.
As for Webkinz - I can't wait until that dies out. My daughter got 5 in the past 6 weeks (birthday and Christma). She hadn't done anything with the 2 she had all summer but was right back into it these past couple of months.
-Frank
-mike