Jeremy Herndon

I received a gift in the mail today from one of my brothers.  Apparently he didn’t get it to the post office in time for me to get it before Christmas.  But that’s OK – I always say “better late than never!”  Anyway, it was another really cool gadget for my computer!  It is a wireless mouse that looks like a yellow Mustang!  I’ve been wanting a wireless mouse for quite some time now, but could never really justify the expense.  So it is totally awesome that my brother sent it to me for a Christmas gift!  I have a great family!

I hope you got as awesome a gift as I got for Christmas yesterday! It is a USB Hub that looks like R2D2! My wife tells me that she bought it over the Internet from the geekstuff4u.com website.  I’ve been hinting to my wife that we need a new USB Hub because the old one broke about two weeks ago and it has been a real drag trying to do everything I need to do without it.  So close to Christmas I didn’t want to go out and buy a new one, I thought maybe this would be a good gift for someone to give to me.  So I hinted around a LOT and I have to say that I’m really impressed that this is what I ended up with!  I am a HUGE Star Wars fan!  This little guy is sensational!  He clicks and whirs and beeps and looks perfect on my desk beside my computer.  I think this is about the greatest gift I could have gotten this year!

Well, being true to my sex, I have left much of my shopping undone until today.  I don’t know why I wait until the last minute!  We got off of work about 10am this morning, and I went and did my shopping then.  It’s very interesting to see how many men are at the stores at the same time!  I ran into a few friends of mine, and we all had a good laugh about how we all wait until the last minute to buy our gifts!  Usually I see the store shelves pretty bare, this year I was surprised to see how full they still are!  Well, anyway, I got my shopping done, I hope yours is done too!

Well I woke up this morning and saw a wintry mess out there – freezing rain, snow, nasty stuff.  I sure was glad that I got around to putting my studded snow tires on my car Friday!  I had heard that we were going to be getting some bad weather right off, and decided not to put it off any longer.  There were several times last year that I slid off of the road because I didn’t have my studded tires put on the car.  That’s one mistake that I don’t want to repeat!  This area gets too icy for just plain old “all weather tires.”

This morning I was listening to the radio on my way to work and the disk jockey was talking about having gone to a local school’s Christmas concert over the weekend.  He apparently has been going to this particular school’s concert for many years; I suspect he probably has family members that go there.  I don’t think he has kids that “go there” as students, perhaps they go as teachers or support staff.  I’m basing that on the fact that he commented on being born early enough to be wearing a “Davy Crockett” raccoon hat when the Davy Crockett show came out on television in 1954.  So I have to guess that he was born in the late 40′s.  Anyway, he was playing the song “Sleigh Ride” which has several whip cracks in it.  (I like that song!) 

After the song he was talking about having a conversation with the director of the band that had held the Christmas concert and he asked him what the name of the instrument is that makes the noise of the whip crack.  He was very surprised to learn that the name of the instrument is, in fact, “whip crack.”  I had to laugh at the story because a few years ago I had asked a relative of mine who was in a high school band at the time the exact same question, and got the same answer, and how dumb I felt when he told me the answer!  So it’s nice to know I’m not the only “dummy” out there that didn’t know what that instrument was called!

I thought I’d write a post about what I think about the three “big” fast food chain restaurants that I frequent. All in all, I like the French fries and McDonald’s the best, if I can get them HOT. That has been the biggest problem I’ve had with McDonald’s, the French fries I get are frequently COLD, and then that is disgusting. Their chicken sandwiches are pretty good, too. Their burgers, well, I don’t like them. I’ll eat them if I have to, but I don’t like them. So when I go there I usually order a chicken sandwich and fries.

For burgers, my favorite burgers are Burger King burgers. I LOVE the char-broiled taste! But their fries are pretty nasty, even if they ARE hot. So I’ll order the onion rings instead! They are pretty good, and neither McDonald’s nor Wendy’s sells onion rings. Their chicken products have way too much pepper in them and every time I forget and order some chicken from them I regret it.

Now Wendy’s, I like to go there and order their baked potato! Their burgers are better than McDonalds, and their chicken sandwiches are good, too. Their fries are acceptable, but I do NOT order Sprite to drink because their Sprite is always super NASTY! So I have to order root beer instead, which is ok, but I would prefer Sprite if it tasted the right way! I do wish that Wendy’s had milk shakes, their Frosty’s just are not that great a substitute!

I understand that there are several organizations that have arranged to get folks to send Christmas cards and gifts over to the folks serving away from home.  And some have arranged to send the soldiers blank holiday cards to send them for the soldiers to use.  I think that’s wonderful, and I truly hope that they soldiers have as good a Holiday season as possible and that they are home again by the next Christmas!

My wife told me today that she read an article that some scientists had created a part-cow/part human embryo and that the embryo lived for three days.  I was absolutely shocked to hear that, in fact I didn’t believe her at all!  Why on earth would anyone want to do that? 

But then she showed me the website she had read the article, http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23476268-38200,00.html?from=public_rss, and it sure seems that she was not lying to me!  According to the story, the scientists were NOT trying to create some kind of new creature that would be roaming around the earth; they were trying to find ways to further the progress of stem cell research.  So now that makes sense!

Last night I was out shopping and picked up a copy of the Dark Knight DVD.  I remember seeing the movie in the theaters when it first came out and really liked it a lot, and decided to add the flick to my DVD collection when it came out.  So last night was the first time I saw it at the stores and decided to pick it up when I saw it.  I’m going to invite some friends over this weekend to watch it with me and have a little pizza and movie party.  And of course, we’ll have popcorn and plenty of soda to drink.  After all, what’s a movie without popcorn and soda?

Around this time of year I like to go to the local craft store and buy new calendars for the new Year coming up.  A few years ago I just happened to be in one of the craft stores around this same time of year and found that they sold a huge variety of high quality calendars for under $5.00 each.  A lot of them were only $1 or $2 each!  When I found them I bought quite a few of them to give out to my friends and family as Christmas gifts.  I think that is a great bargain because when I go to many department stores, or stationary stores, or gift stores, they sell the exact same type of calendars for $15 to $20 each!

So I will make a point of going to the craft store before now and Christmas and pick up a few calendars!

My parents held a tree decorating party tonight.  They invited a lot of their family and friends over for a large buffet dinner and then we all drank hot chocolate (or hot apple cider) and helped to decorate the tree.  Of course we listened to Christmas music while we decorated.   I went over last night and put the lights on the tree first – what a job that always is!  My mother wants every light exactly perfect!  It takes at least two hours to do it and get it to her satisfaction!  But the party went very well and the tree looks great!  Everyone had a great time.  The only thing missing was a little bit of snow!

My parents asked me to go with them to the tree farm today and help them to cut down their tree.  That is something they have done ever since they were first married, and now that they are getting on in years they need a little bit of help to do it.  Since I live nearby, I don’t mind doing it for them, it has been part of my heritage, to always go along ever since I was big enough to walk.  Bringing our own saw and going to the tree farm, picking out the “best” tree from the hundreds of “perfect” trees,  It doesn’t take long to saw the tree down, pay the farmer and tie it to the top of the car and tote it home.  That is a family tradition that means a lot to my parents, and I’m glad I’m around to help them maintain that tradition as long as they want to keep doing it.

As I’m writing this the house is filled with the wonderful aroma of the turkey cooking in the oven.  I helped my wife prepare the stuffing this morning.  I had no idea how much work making stuffing can be!  She wanted to just use a prepared box convenience stuffing but I told her that I wanted to use my grandmother’s “from scratch” recipe.  She told me that I’d have to help and I agreed.  I don’t know if we’ll ever do that again!  It took a long time!  My wife says that she could have doctored up the boxed stuffing and make it taste just as good.  Well, maybe we’ll try that next time.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to a wonderful meal with my favorite green bean casserole, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, and apple pie for dessert!  I hope you all have a great meal too!

I was saddened to hear that a teenager that suffered from bi-polar disorder committed suicide, while broadcasting it over webcam onto the live website called Justin.tv.  From what I understand, hundreds of people watched him take an overdose of prescription medicine and lie down on his bed.  It was not until someone noticed that he stopped breathing that authorities were killed – all of the viewers thought it was a joke!  How sad is that?  I would have hoped that someone would have called the authorities the minute he put the pills in his mouth.  Society seems to be really sliding downhill fast!

A couple of my friends that I haven’t seen in a few months came over yesterday afternoon, bringing food and the DVD of the most recent “Hulk” movie.  We pigged out on pizza, sub sandwiches and soda and watched the flick while eating popcorn.  Not the healthiest meal, I know, but we don’t do that very often and we had a lot of fun joking around while we ate.

It was a rainy day, so none of us felt guilty about the leaves that needed to be raked, we just hunkered down inside and had ourselves a day off – a very well deserved day off at that!

I wanted to take a minute to honor all of the men and women who are serving, or have served in our military.  I cannot even imagine for a moment how difficult it must be for you to have been separated from your loved ones and put into battle.  You have my appreciation and respect forever.  And for those of you who are currently serving in a battle area, my prayers are that you return home safely and soon.  You are not forgotten.

I sure hope you voted yesterday, because if not, it’s too late now!  I voted, I had to stand in line for an hour behind an elderly woman who had put on about a gallon of cologne – boy did she stink to high heaven!  I don’t know what it is with old people and their sense of smell going bad, but I sure wish they’d lay off the cologne!  Some of these scents are really overpowering and give me a headache, and that is what happened with me yesterday; by the time I got to vote I had a migraine headache and I ended up having to go home and take the day off of work.  I’m feeling better today thank goodness.

I’ve seen pictures of the Smart car on the Internet, and on television, but not “for real” until today.  I was waiting to pull out of a parking lot and a large tractor trailer passed me by, followed by a Smart car.  What a huge difference in size that was!  It was a cute little thing, a bright red, but it brought back memories of many years ago when I saw the results of a little car being in an accident with a tractor trailer and it made me shudder.  I don’t know how safe I would feel in such a little car!

My younger brother is coming to spend the weekend with me this weekend.  In a short while I have to leave to go pick him up at the Metro rail station.  He took the bus from New Jersey; it only costs him about $15 to take a bus, and he brings his laptop and works on his laptop or reads on the bus ride down.  It will be good to see him again; we haven’t seen each other in a few months.  I asked him if there was anything special he wanted to do while he was here – any sightseeing, etc, and he said no, he just wanted to relax and hang out.  So that will be the plan of action, we’ll just hang out, play some games, watch some flicks and stay up late and sleep late as much as possible.  I’m looking forward to the visit!

Tonight a group of my friends got together to eat dinner at our local Applebee’s restaurant.  That’s one of our favorite places to eat, the food is always good and it is always reasonably priced.  The only thing that we don’t like about it is that it has a “smoking” section.  We always ask for a seat in the “non-smoking” section but we still smell the cigarette smoke, which is just plain and simple nauseating to smell.  Never mind the health consequences of smoking and second-hand smoke, it just plain and simply smells nasty!  We were surprised that last night they allowed smoking; there are times when I’ve gone there and it was all non-smoking.  Maybe that’s only on Sundays.  Next time we think we want to go there, I’m going to call them and ask them when they have smoke-free dining.