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This was the best Thanksgiving I've had in years. Livingstons converged on St. Louis from all over to gather in celebration, reunion and thanksgiving. And eating. The Boo made the sojourn from TPA last week--we've really enjoyed our visit thus far (...of course that could change at any minute). Sister and her tribe made the trip across the state on Wednesday. Brother and the gang flew in from Georgia. I'm so thankful that I didn't have to travel and that everyone came here. The kids are all growing rapidly and are happy and healthy. Lovely Wife prepared a sumptuous repast for the clan. Turkey, ham and all the trimmings. I'm particularly fond of trimmings. To work off some of the food, we all enjoyed a rousing ping-pong tournament. BoyHead was our tournament director and drew up the roster--he also was the grand champion. But, the winners in the "having fun" category had to go to Annie and The Boo.
On Friday, for a bit of a diversion, we took to some bowling. It was good to get out of the house for a bit and we certainly all needed the practice. Since all the fat-knuckled bowlers were already using the large holed balls, I had to pick the first one that my big thumb would fit in. Unfortunately, it was a 62 lb. ball. I rolled a devastating 103. Surprisingly, I ranked third (like I said, we need the practice).
It was a fabulous holiday and I'm certainly glad that all could make the trip. Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks to our corporate sponsor, The Boo and I were able to go see the Rams play Arizona today. Actually, play might be a bit of an overstatement, but the Rams certainly did attend. We took the MetroLink TM downtown and had a splendid time. The sights and sounds of downtown--I just love it. Brats on the grill, live bands, crazies in the street. We got the required picture of The Boo with Mr. Saint Louis and he even asked me to take a picture with his camera. The Rams may have dashed any hope of getting to the playoffs today, but a good time was certainly had by all.
Behold...the perfect, hand-crafted Breakfast Sandwich. Lately, I've been making Lovely Daughter breakfast before school. Since Lovely Wife has been working hard, I thought I'd let her sleep a bit. What I lack in repetoire, I make up for in pure-d-ole goodness. Scrambled eggs, farina, oatmeal--those are my limits at omigosh-thirty in the morning. Today's feature was the world-famous "Breakfast Sandwich". Basically, it's a couple of fried eggs on toast with a slice of cheese and some ham. It's hearty, delicious and expeditious. It can go fridge to plate in about six minutes, which is very important for those early mornings when every minute counts.
After a couple months of complaints from the family, I finally got a new work computer for my home office. Their complaints were well founded. Lately, I have been quite the computer hog. Initially, when I began working from home, I was using my laptop. But I dislike the laptop. More and more, I began doing things on the family desktop until I have nearly taken it over. Not so much it's hard drive or other resources--mostly, I've taken its time. Seems like I'm on the computer nearly 10 hours per day. With the onset of winter, those numbers will probably climb. So, I did it. Made the jump. I decided on the HP Pavillion a1210n. I think it will suit my purposes just fine.
Best Buy made the buying experience relatively pain-free. I bought it pretty much "off the shelf" except I had a floppy drive installed. None of the PC's come with a FD anymore. And I upgraded to a 17" LCD monitor. Of course, I got Microsoft Office and NAV. Surge Supressor and wireless router for my (new) DSL connection and I'm ready to go. All that for about $1,100...
...At least I think it was $1,100. Or at least it will be $1,100. I'm due to get $300 in rebates. Six different rebates equaling $300. I spent 45 minutes filling out all the rebate forms and making sure I followed the directions exactly. I picture a guy at the rebate place just looking for misspellings and anything he could consider illegible. I used my best Mrs.-Grayson-Second-Grade-Penmanship. Rebate form...check. Copy of receipt...check. UPC from box...check. Receipt from previously purchased NAV or other Symantec product...whoa! Those Norton AntiVirus folks sure make things difficult. Luckily, I purchased my old 2003 version on line and I still have the email confirmation. I never delete my old email. It's both a curse and a blessing. Sort of like the dual nature of light: both a particle and a wave...But, I digress. Anyway, the whole shebang should be set up within the week and I'll have new email addresses to pass along to everyone. I will be using: eric@ericlivingston.net. That way, I'll never have to change my email again. It's already set up if you want to give me a shout. The rest of the fam will have to decide for themselves. So I'll have my office completely to myself. The family will have their old computer back in the new upstairs computer lounge complete with wireless DSL. And a good time will be had by all.