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Monday, November 28, 2005 - 1:24 PM

I'm not sure if there's much worse than coming into work on a Monday after a long holiday weekend. It's been hard to get motivated to do much. I doubt I'm alone.

I don't know what it is about Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving always seems to be crazier than Christmas. We seem to travel a lot more for it than any other holiday. Thanksgiving Day itself was no biggie, it was just a drive to Frisco and back. But on Saturday we were to go "camping" with the Creed side of the family, and we had no idea how far away it was. When we printed out directions Saturday morning, Yahoo! Maps gave us a travel estimate of 7.5 hours. Thank God it didn't take that long, but six hours is still past my limit to being in a car. Shawn had no idea how much I hated car trips. This revelation ruined his idea of ever driving to Colorado. Sorry, the only time I will ever drive that far will be to move somewhere. But honestly, the drive wouldn't have been that bad if we didn't have to leave early the next morning.

We stayed in cabins in mid-West Texas (the hill country). The scenery was gorgeous. Since it hasn't been that cold yet, the trees were still changing colors, which looked just beautiful on the hills. And yep, we had a pretty good time. We never see this side of the family, so it was nice to get to know a few other family members better. Hopefully we will schedule a yearly get together with them, and hopefully it will be just a few hours closer to Dallas. It was beautiful and all, but just soooo freaking far.

So now it's time to shift gears for the Christmas season. We already have the house decorated, and I'm getting my list ready for Christmas cards. Our gift list is almost finished for everyone (I have to make a list before I start shopping... just one of those quirks for me). So far, I can still avoid actually entering a store for Christmas shopping. I so love online shopping. I don't know what I did without it.

posted by Keri
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Monday, November 21, 2005 - 1:31 PM

Yep, time to update your bookmarks. E-honea.net is no more. Not sure about what I'm doing with my e-mail address just yet. But oh well. I have until July to work that out.

Stars games are awesome. And Stars games at ice-level... nothing can really describe that. Of course now we've spoiled ourselves and there's no way we can go back to nosebleed seats. One thing that did really make my jaw drop: the goalie, in full goalie gear, holding onto his hockey stick, doing the full splits while warming up. And not on accident. He went down to the middle splits, and then proceeded to the left and right splits. I couldn't help but stare. I can't do either splits, much less THINK about doing them with all that gear on and on skates. I'm sure I wasn't the only woman in the arena gaping.

Saw the fourth Harry Potter movie on Saturday. Once again, the movies outdo themselves. My only complaint: NO QUIDDITCH! I look forward to watching the Quidditch matches ever since the first movie... and they really haven't done them since the second. But really, that is my only complaint. Rupert Grint is getting to be VERY handsome as he grows up. And the actor for Victor Krum... purrrrrrr. Lots of eye candy if you don't mind that it's a little pedophilic... especially for someone my age. I blame anime for any of my tendencies. Oh yeah, there's lots of action in this one as well. If you haven't read the books, note that the darkness starts here. It gets soooo good! Hurry up with that seventh book, Ms. Rowling!

So all in all, busy weekend. Colts won, yay! Baylor won, yay! Texans still suck... we'll see how the Packers do tonight. My in-laws came in town yesterday and they actually stuck out watching the whole Colts game with me. I suppose I'll have to pay them back by eating Mexican food. Maybe I'm really not a Texan after all.

posted by Keri
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Sunday, November 20, 2005 - 10:34 AM

Damn skippy.

posted by Keri
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Wednesday, November 16, 2005 - 4:21 PM

Yesterday was Shawn's birthday. As of yesterday I have eight whole months when he can't call me old. And no, the fact that I've been older four months longer than him DOES NOT COUNT. We didn't do much to celebrate (damn jobs) but I did surprise him with tickets to see the Stars on Friday. I also decided to make a hockey theme out of the whole thing (Jarrett approved!) and also bought him the new hockey game for the PS2. That may have been a mistake in that I think I've lost serious X-Men Legends playing time now. But oh well. Maybe now I'll learn a little more about hockey watching him play. I've learned a crap load about golf watching him play Tiger Woods 2005.

Most people know that I'm not exactly a gamer by definition, but video games fascinate me. Yes, I do have a subscription to Nintendo Power. I might renew my subscription to Playstation magazine. A month or so ago, I randomly applied to be a writer/editor for Advanced Media Network, and suddenly I'm a new freelance editor. You have no idea how excited I am about this. Of course, I'm also about to be extremely poor in reading about all the new games coming out. The other night I was flipping through my newest Nintendo Power, and I started to giggle as I realized that I've edited articles weeks ago about games the magazine is reviewing. No, it's not something I can quit my day job over (as I really don't get paid except in free games, but if I suck at editing they'll cancel my login) but it's still exciting for me. AMN is a brand new gaming news site, and who knows what will happen if they really take off. What I'm really hoping is that I can move into a preview writing position. I get bored and frustrated by games easily, so I wouldn't be a great reviewer for games. But previews... I think I'd be great at that. But for now it's all a pipe dream. A pipe dream that is rather pretty to look at.

posted by Keri
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Monday, November 14, 2005 - 2:47 PM

Wheeeee I'm having a X-Men-Geeky day! But that's always a good thing! I knew that watching that damn cartoon would pull me back into loving (borderline obsessed) the X-Men like I did back in high school. Sure enough, last night I talked to Shawn about finding additional copies of two issues so I could frame them because I love the cover art so much. I do a search on ebay... and bam! Found them both for $1 each. So then I figure, while I'm at it, I never did find #11. Another search and whoop! Found it for $2. I'm finally going to know how the Omega Red arc ends! Okay, so I know, but now I get to read it. And then I pondered, well, I stopped collecting it around issue #42 or so... does anyone sell back issues? O_O Oh yeah, they do. It looks like I have a new project on my hands as #170 comes out in December. That's just what, 130 backissues to find? It's like my own personal X-Men treasure hunt!

The first X-Men movie was on FX last night, and it triggered a question that I have always wondered about. Why in the world is Wolverine so damn popular? And I mean so damn popular that everything always seems to center around him?? I don't mean Wolverine in the movies... Hugh Jackman is too sexy and Bryan Singer made the character waaaaay cooler than in the comics and the cartoon. But from the comics alone, why is he so popular? It doesn't make any sense to me. Artistically, he's nothing all that special except for his hair. His personality also leaves something to be desired. He always seems to be throwing a temper tantrum about something and leaving in a huff. Of course then we have to focus the story on his journeys during his huff. True, he knows how to fight and he does what he does very well. But really, why does everything seem to revolve around the little man?

posted by Keri
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Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 12:21 PM

Holy cow my travel schedule for 2006 is going to be NUTS. I can't get sick at all. Aside from the two week trip to Japan, which will soak up a lot of vacation/sick time to say the least, I now have two out of state weddings to go to! In June I have a wedding in Aspen and in July I have a wedding in New York. How much fun is this going to be??? I can hardly wait for the festivities to begin!

I started a new video game over the weekend: X-Men Legends. I know that the sequel just came out, but I saved over $30 for procrastinating. I am having a blast so far. The style is 100% Gauntlet, so it's hack and slash all the way baby. I'm just ready to play as Rogue or Gambit! Wheeeee!

posted by Keri
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Friday, November 11, 2005 - 3:24 PM

Hard to believe, but I'm not going out of town at all this weekend. Unless you count going to Frisco for a haircut. A looooong overdue haircut. I probably won't be heading anywhere until Christmas, when we visit my family for the holidays.

But looking back on this year, I've really traveled to a lot of places: Las Vegas, Colorado, Atlanta, Minneapolis, and Green Bay. I think that out of all those places, Atlanta is my favorite. Aside from being scenic, Atlanta has a beautiful downtown. It almost rivals Fort Worth. Colorado is beautiful, but damn did it ever do a job on my allergies. Next year will also have lots of traveling. Aside from the big Japan trip (whooot!), I know I have to make a trek to Seattle, go back to Atlanta at least once, and somehow make it up to Jersey to see Bacon-kun. I would have gone to Seattle by now, but holy schnikies the plane tickets are pricey.

I also have a small website announcement to make. Someday soon, e-honea.net will be no more. I have been in the process of moving it to my other domain for awhile now, I've just been too lazy to make the final steps. But as requested, I will make a redirect link for temporary use until bookmarks are updated. Why the change? Well, to be honest, I've never liked this domain name. I opened up allenschezar.com on a whim about half a year ago or so, and steadily I've started to like that domain better. The original purpose for that site has been closed for awhile now, so it just makes sense to move everything over. I've even built a separate cel gallery on that domain (which I know excites you all). So, sorry if you've become attached to e-honea.net. Things change, and we all adapt.

posted by Keri
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Wednesday, November 09, 2005 - 8:56 PM

Oy. Talk about not knowing where your week is going to go. Early Tuesday morning, right after I got out of the shower and started to ponder about what needed to get done today as I was out on Monday, my cell phone rang and I was asked to go to Fort Worth to help in trial since the legal assistant was sick. My immediate comment was, "Well, I think I'm going to be late." Garland is almost 50 miles away from Fort Worth. And I was thinking about the rush hour traffic.

So yeah, I went from wondering what I'm going to do this week to driving to Fort Worth for trial. It's nice when life surprises you at times.

Even though I was really only out for three days, it feels like I've been gone for two weeks. I haven't checked my e-mail, edited, or looked for cels since Friday. I never thought about it while I was in Wisconsin, but I hope I didn't miss any good cel updates. Yes, I know it's a sick addiction. But I can quit at any time! Really!

posted by Keri
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Monday, November 07, 2005 - 3:54 PM

I am very proud to say that I survived the north with no problems. ^_^ But I almost didn't get there. I almost missed my flight. I thought that my flight was at 1:30. I was driving over to Kay's to drop off the dogs when it suddenly hit me that my flight was at 1. I sped over to DFW as fast as I could, parked, and ran to check in my bags. I arrived at my gate 15 minutes before takeoff. I will do my best to NEVER do that again. Really aside from the fear of missing my flight, I was a little more afraid of my bag not making the plane. But all was well when I landed... my bag was there just fine. Like I said, NEVER again.

Most of this trip was spent travelling. I didn't realize that Green Bay was so far from Minneapolis. Perhaps I should have consulted a map. We drove 3 hours on Saturday and stayed in Wausau, Wisconsin, and then another 2 hours on Sunday morning. We arrived just in time for lunch, and we couldn't believe it, but we found a Texas Roadhouse in freaking Green Bay, Wisconsin. So we ate there. We really wanted to eat at Brett Favre's Steakhouse, but the line was huge.

I did come to the conclusion that going to a Packers game is very much like going to an anime con. A bunch of freaks dress up, everyone buys crap that they normally wouldn't buy at the shops, and after awhile, everyone smells a little gamey. The only difference is what is in the viewing rooms.

After all that I was expecting, it really was not all that cold. I did want my turtle fur headband for my ears and my gloves, but I didn't need the neck gaiter or a heavy jacket. I did buy a hat at the proshop, and that probably helped some as well. Hearing the fans clap was so funny because the noise was muffled by everyone's gloves. By the end of the night, it was rather cold. My legs did get numb. I think it dropped down to the thirties at that point. Thank God the wind had stopped before then. While I do say that it wasn't that bad, please note that I still have no desire to visit the north in the actual winter. This was cold enough for me, thanks.

Even though we lost, the game was a blast. I sat next to the nicest woman, who grew up in Green Bay and now lives two blocks from the stadium. We screamed loudly, danced like idiots in the stands, and I got to experience fried cheese curds. Pure fried goodness. I also learned that the best thing for an outdoor, cold football game is hot chocolate. Sure you can't drink it for half an hour (personal experience here) but if you hold it with your legs it really warms them up.

With the Japan trip next fall, I don't think that I'll be able to make it up there next season, but I'd really love to make this an annual tradition. Thanks again for inviting me, Jen!

posted by Keri
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Thursday, November 03, 2005 - 2:26 PM

Well, I'm officially crossing "Software Trainer" off my list of possible careers. I've been training other assistants this week how to use this new trial software, and I thought I was doing really well. I wasn't getting frustrated, I seemed to come off clear to others, and I was actually teaching. But then, someone asked me what it meant to "copy and paste." My jaw dropped and yes, I did stare blankly because I had NO IDEA how to explain that concept. I use it with practically every computer application, so to me, it was like someone asking me what it meant to "save a document." So yep. Obviously not for me.

posted by Keri
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