Birthday Wishlist

My brithday is May 21st! Woohoo!

I have an Amazon Wishlist that you can go look at, but although Amazon would have you think otherwise, they dont have EVERYTHING. so take a look through my wishlist, but realize that there are more things, or more information below.

Geek Gadgets

I’ve always thought the iRobot Roomba were cool and now with the second generation (something like the iRobot Roomba 4210 Discovery Vacuuming Robot) they really seem to be pretty good little cleaners. They are a bit pricy though, and unfortunately I don’t think getting one used is the answer.

I could really use a larger USB memory key. I like the one I’ve got, but I’m constantly filling it up (its 2GB). Lexar has a new larger one out that I’d really like to have: 8GB Jumpdrive Firefly JDFF8GB-431

All my geek gadgets need a garage

For the home/apt

There are a few things that I would really like to get for the apartment, that I haven’t for some reason or another. A few of these things you’ll probably want to just tell me, and we can both go pick it. Some of them I have specifics with maybe some ifs, ands or buts.

A new office chair would be greatly appreciated. I think I’ve had the same one for at least 6 years now and its getting tired. I recently went on a shopping journey for work looking for an office chair at a reasonable price that I liked so I’ve done quite a bit of butt tests and determined that the Office Depot Baymont Black Leather High-Back Chair (#735854190477) is the chair for me. The Office Depot in Folsom has them for $130 (its almost $200 online) and when I was in there a few days ago they had quite a few left.

A stand up BBQ, something like the one in this picture (haha, just kidding… something like this)

I still would like to get the headboard that matches the rest of my furniture. Target still sells it online.

A larger, possibly wrap around couch. Used is great, Craig’s list for the win on this one. I just don’t want to do the searching myself . Something like this (example only) is the kind of shape I’m looking for, it needs to fit in the apartment.

Computer & Electronics

I’d like to have a harmony remote for the bedroom as well. The Harmony 880, 890 or 550 are all fine. OR you could get the Harmony 1000 and I’ll put that in the living room and move the 880 to the bedroom. Used is actually OK with me, as long as its not abused.

Another Dell 24″ monitor would be really sweet. Although, to be honest. I’m not sure if I could give you any practical reason for it. It would just generally kick ass.

An HD TiVo would tickle me pink. It also serves as a gift to Kerry too, since she’ll probably be using it more than me.

Delayed Christmas Writings

I feel kind of bad that I have been slacking so much on keeping you up to date on things. Chadd on the other hand has been doing an awesome job, so hopefully he doesn’t mind if I yoink chunks of his posts to quickly write mine.

I had four Christmases this year, first a week before the actuall Christmas with the Klaus family (My Dad’s side, obviously), one evening with my roomates and then I spent Christmas day with both my Mom’s side of the family, and Kerry’s family.

Klaus Family Christmas (12-16-06)

Christmas is just a week away, and every year the Klaus family (my Dad’s side) gets together to exchange gifts, stockings, eat and, any time you get a Klaus group together, play cards. This year it was at my cousin’s new house in Sacramento. Jason did most of the cooking, with some help from Angela doing the dessert (a very tasty dessert I might add).

While we waited for the stuffed meatballs to cook (also very good, and very filling), we handed out stockings. One thing that my Dad got in his stocking was a bag of army men, and let me tell you, give my Dad the right toys, and he’ll turn into a kid again.

From the stockings, we all went to the table when the food was ready. For dinner we had a plate of two Lingonberry Stuffed Meatballs on Terragon and Sweet Pea Puree layered over Truffled Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Most people couldn’t finish eating both meatballs, but every agreed that it was very good. For our dessert that evening we had Lemon Brown Sugar Bread Pudding. It was more bread than pudding; something that you could eat with a fork.

-Chadd

We did a fun gift exchange this year, basically a white elephant exchange but with a $40 budget per person, and thus, more interesting gifts. I opened a shop vac, which then got stolen, so I stole an ice cream maker. When Chadd’s gift got stolen, he in turn took my ice cream maker and I ended the night with a really nice crock pot.

In all it was a fun time, and it is always nice to see some of the family that I dont get a chance to see all of them all the time.

Roomate Christmas (12-22-06)

We had a nice little thing at our house for Christmas with the roomates, as well as Kerry and Candice. If I had realized that Cody and Becca were going to be gone, I would have done it at a diffrent time and had them over too, my bad.

Anyway, I decided I really wanted to make it something to remember, so I scoured the internet (not really, google is awesome) for the recipie to that dinner that Jason had made above. And wouldn’t you know, its really not all that hard to make. For those of you interested:

Lingonberry Stuffed Meatballs Recipe
Tarragon and Sweet Pea Puree Recipe
Truffled Mashed Potatoes Recipe

I got a chance to use my new crock pot as well, filled it with a gallon of Apple Cider which was almost gone by the time the night was over.

I’m really quite proud of how it all came out in the end, a really nice dinner with some good wine, good friends and lots of laughter.

Blanchard Christmas (12-25-06)

Every year the location that we will all go to for Christmas alternates between my Grandparents’ house and my Parents’ house. This year it happened to be at my Grandparents’. On Christmas Eve, we pack all the presents under our tree at home into as few cars as we can manage, and head up to my Grandparents’ house. Now, I’ve always thought it is cool that I can say honestly, “over a river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house I go.” Sure, it may only be a small creek, and trees are probably not packed close enough for some people to classify them as woods, but it’s close enough for me.

Once we arrive, we make several trips to and from the house with armfuls of gifts. We take these presents and pile them around the tree. The tree ends up with about a three foot radius of presents around it.

…

After some snacks were munched on, and a game of magic was played with my cousin, I ventured back into the main part of the house to find a (practically) family tradition being played on the table. Every time we get enough people together from my mom’s side of the family, we break out the Rummikube game. Vaguely similar to Rummy played with cards [that my Dad's side of the family seems to play religiously], only this game is played with tiles, and there are a few differences in how you are allowed to play tiles.

After Keith arrived carrying the rest of the Playstation 2 that I left at home, we plugged it all in and started up Guitar Hero. Unfortunately, we only had one guitar controller, so we had to take turns playing. I did manage to make Kyle look somewhat like a rock star in this photo.

Kerry had come up with me to visit with my family, but she wanted to be with her family, and particuarly in her bed (since she had been house sitting for a few days prior) for christmas, so I took her home around 10PM. Unfortunatly, I was tired too and laid down on the bed and ended up falling asleep for a few hours. I didn’t make it back up to my grandparents until just after midnight and had to move around by flashlight to get to bed.

People started moving stirring about at around 7 in the morning. When everyone was inside the house (some slept in the motor home outside) we started handing out stockings. After we all sifted through our stockings, we started to open up gifts (here are some of the pictures). Kyle left after opening presents to bring Kerry up so that she could open hers. Kyle almost missed his favorite meal. We had delicious biscuits and gravy (I had jam instead, not a big fan of the gravy) for breakfast.

After we all played around with our new toys and other gizmos and gadgets, we ate [an early] dinner. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy; can’t beat a great combination like that. Afterwards, we had to try to gather up everything and stuff it all back into the car. This time we had an extra person to ride in the car since Meghann had to leave to go spend time with her family, taking her car (and Keith’s ride there) with her.

All in all, it was a great Christmas, and it was nice to see some of my cousins again. Next year should be at my parents’ house, and if this moving out thing goes according to plan, it should be quite fun.

Bosch Christmas (12-25-06)

After leaving my grandparents house, Kerry and I headed back to her house to enjoy the rest of the evening with her family. Liz made a wonderfull dinner. I had Lamb for I think the first time. It had a very familiar taste, but I can’t think of any other time I would have had it. The best part though was Desert. Liz makes this thing called a Pepermint Crisp Tart. I dont really know what all is in it, but its delicious.

Kerry and I left her house not to long after dinner to go back down to my house where we tried to watch Batman Begins in High Definition (Both the movie and player were christmas gifts), however with my serious lack of sleep and a busy day, I couldn’t stay awake.

It’s On!

I like to stop in the KB Toys store when I’m in that shopping area here in Elk Grove to look over the Die Cast cars. Over the weekend, I did just that. But instead of walking out with some new Die Cast cars, I bought an RC Boat. Nothing fancy, it was only about $25 but I’ve always wanted one so I bought it. Its pretty cool, again, nothing fancy. All electric but it steers and goes forward and backwards.When we were running (well, when I was walking), Cody and I were talking about it, and how we could make it go faster. When we got home, we started playing with it in the pool and Cody brought up a challange. Each of us gets a budget of $20 plus the cost of the boat, and 1 week to see who can make the fastest boat.

I can’t reveal any of my secret plans, but just know… ITS ON!