As usual, Mookie gave Dad uber-cool presents for Christmas. The banner above shows a few of the figures from the Horrified B-Movie Victims Figure Set.

Posted by: Ted at 06:22 PM | category: Square Pegs
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We commoners call it a relish tray or just veggie snacks, but the proper term for it is pronounced just like the title above. I'd heard the word, I knew what it meant, but I'd never seen it spelled out before.

I now take great pleasure in pronouncing it phonetically.

Cruddites.

Posted by: Ted at 04:51 AM | category: Square Pegs
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The family was very, very nice to me this year.

The Rocket Jones movie library increased by several, including Jack Nicholson's Goin' South (one of my all-time favorites), the exploitation classic I Spit On Your Grave, several oldies (some starring Bela Lugosi) and including the wonderfully abysmal Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, and Universal's Wolfman Legacy Collection. I also wound up with the complete television series Buffalo Bill.

In print, I got the Zombie Survival Guide, and for my listening pleasure Frank Zappa's ThingFish.

More later. Been busy marrying off my kid and all, don't'cha know.

Posted by: Ted at 07:49 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Merry Christmas to all, and may you have a safe and wonderful holiday!

This will probably be the last post before Christmas. Tomorrow morning we pack up and head down to Norfolk. Saturday is daughter Robyn's wedding, and on Sunday morning the whole wedding party will be travelling back to our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas day, at least. Lots of celebrating, lots of cooking and eating, joy and all that happy crap.

See y'all next week.

Posted by: Ted at 12:25 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1 My congratulations to Robyn and the lucky groom!
Hope you all have a great time and a merry Christmas.

Posted by: nic at December 21, 2006 12:29 PM (JijW0)

2 Good luck and best wishes not only to Robyn and hers but to you and yer whole clan,Ted.Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as well as a a safe trip to and fro.

Posted by: Russ at December 21, 2006 01:04 PM (K33HX)

3 Wow, a wedding and then Christmas Eve/Day?? Geez, that's a lot of celebration! Have a great time and all the best for '07!

Posted by: Cindy at December 22, 2006 07:57 AM (mE0Bd)

4 Merry Christmas and all that happy crap to you and your family, and congrats to Robyn.

Posted by: buckethead at December 22, 2006 02:08 PM (ysFGh)

5 Awesome!

Yer prolly having the time of yer life right now, y'proud pappy, you.

Congradulations to Robyn and Mr. Eldest Daughter!

And have a cracklin' Christmas.

Posted by: Tuning Spork at December 23, 2006 10:05 PM (FVcJz)

6 Merry Christmas 'n' crap to you and your family, Ted. Warning: Happy times ahead...

Ian

Posted by: Ian at December 24, 2006 03:03 PM (DGmNs)

7 Merry Christmas, Ted!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at December 25, 2006 02:37 PM (0AQAr)

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A trite saying that has more than a grain of truth to it.

A few nights ago there was a murder up the street. A guy that I'd seen around (he owned a lawn-care business) was shot and killed in the middle of the street. Details were sparse, other than that he was shot in the back of the head.

This bothered me for obvious reasons, but mostly because it seemed so random. We live in a pretty good neighborhood. A robbery didn't make sense since he was shot in the back of the head. Drug dealing was possible, and gang related violence wasn't inconceivable, but something about the whole thing just didn't add up.

Until yesterday, when the local paper finally published their story. Long time readers may remember back in 2003 when we had another murder about six doors up from our house. It was probably over drugs, but the gist of it is that two guys walked up to the living room window and shot the wrong guy inside to death. Then they jumped into a car driven by a third guy and sped away.

All three were caught, and the two shooters are serving looooong sentences behind bars. The driver did some sort of plea-bargain thing with the cops, and did little, if any time.

You know where this is going, right?

The guy murdered the other night was the driver of that car. Knowing that, the story seems less random. Maybe it was payback, that's certainly a plausible motive. And in an odd way, it has actually eased my worries some.

Reap what you sow. Home to roost. Goes around, comes around. Those aren't just quaint, empty phrases.

Posted by: Ted at 05:09 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Posted by: Ted at 05:07 PM | category: Square Pegs
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A recent exchange after I did a little online Christmas shopping.

Me: Honey, I just bought some stuff online. Don't look too closely at it. (she handles the banking)

Liz: How much did you spend?

Me: One hundred ten dollars and change.

Liz: Whoa, that's a lot!

Me: Well, porn is expensive.

Liz: So is a trip to the emergency room if you aren't kidding.

I love my wife.

Posted by: Ted at 09:07 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Link Test.

Posted by: Ted at 06:45 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Thus begins a comment to a post I made back in February of 2005, titled "WalMart is the United States of the Retail Universe".

And then, one morning, I get this:

I don't understand any good reason to defend Walmart on philosophical grounds. Maybe if you own the hacienda you have the free time to think of bogus arguments to defend your villainy. Then one day the workers find other uses for the tools.

Now, I see several ways to respond to this. But the simplest is to say, "Fuck off, commie."

(Note: this was an old post that's been sitting in my "draft" folder for a long time. This morning, I'm in the mood to finish it.)

Posted by: Ted at 05:41 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Java is an 11 month old female rabbit that we're taking care of for a while.

Beautiful, isn't she? She's a sweetheart too.

We hope that her and Fred will take a liking to each other and become a bonded pair. For now she has her own cage and they're getting used to each other gradually, through the mesh of an exercise pen. Java is a bit bigger than Fred, and almost as large as our little dog, Trix.

Once Java and Fred become buds (they're both fixed, so there will be no little surprises), then they can move in together and then we can begin to foster-care for another bunny or pair. The animal rescue group that we're working with, Bunny Lu, does outstanding work and last year placed 105 rabbits in permanent homes. Unfortunately, they've got more rescued rabbits than homes, and it's just getting worse, which is why we volunteered to temporarily keep a couple more on an as-needed basis.

So far, so good. Her appetite is definitely there (she's eats a lot more than Fred), and that's a good sign. She also plays more with toys, whereas Fred is mostly the explorer type. From what we've been told, Java is somewhat of an escape artist and a jumper, so we're keeping her in a 4 foot tall exercise pen during the day to keep her from going up and over. Her and Fred and the dogs have been checking each other out through the mesh of the pen, and there've been no problems.

A year ago I had no idea that my wife had always wanted a rabbit, and now we've got two with plans to board more. Life is strange. If you're lucky.

Posted by: Ted at 08:14 AM | category: Square Pegs
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