Shawn Sorichetti

For Christmas I received a Magic Bullet, and the first thought of testing it was to make Strawberry Daiquiris. This plan was hampered by a lack of rum in our house, and at the liquor store. Who would have thought there’d be a rush on rum on New Years Eve?

Next test idea, salsa. The plan was to have nachos and cheese for dinner, with a little fondued meats, so salsa made perfect sense. Plus we had most of the ingredients except for fresh cilantro, which was easily fixed.

First attempt, Salsa Puree. I managed to get the Magic Bullet stuck in the lock position. The ingredients were a little more blended than I wanted, but boy did it taste good.

Second attempt, I tried the “Shake ‘n Pulse” method described in the manual. My technique needs a lot of work. Ended up with part puree part big chunks of tomato.

Third attempt was a little more pulse and a little less shake. This again resulted in a puree. Tasty but not the consistency I was looking to achieve.

Luckily all of these attempts were tasty and we ate up all the puree that I created. Tomorrow we shall try again (fajitas for dinner), allowing me to practice my “Shake ‘n Pulse”

This morning while getting ready to head to the local mall. Linda was brushing Megan’s hair and noticed red spots. Quick body search revealed more spots with blisters. First thought, Chicken Pox.

Linda took her immediately to the local clinic to confirm. Immediately put in an isolated room, and 2 hours later confirmed. Megan has Chicken Pox.

Upon their return home, we contacted the people who we had plans with for tonight. One to ask if they had already had Chicken Pox and what they wanted to do about the evenings festivities. But more importantly 2, their daughter had spent the night here, during the contagious period, and we needed to give them a warning.

The end result, we’ll be spending New Years Eve at home with the kids. First time in 4 years we’ve had plans to do something, and at the last minute, they get squashed.

Most importantly, Megan is doing fine, and giving her brother lots of hugs.

I needed to formalize my photo rating system so that I could be more consistent rewarding stars. The following is what I came up with:

• 5 Stars

  Good enough that someone else may want it.

• 4 Stars

  Good enough that I’d hang it on my wall, I’ll show it to other people.

• 3 Stars

  Alright for me, but I wouldn’t show it to anyone else.

• 2 Stars

  It may have potential with proper developing.

• 1 Star

  I’m holding onto this, it’s not good, but I can’t put it in the trash.

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Luckily I did check Best Buy and Futureshop last night. Both stores started their sales at 6am EST (online they started last night). With a couple things still on my Christmas list that I received gift cards for, I made plans to do a little shopping. Gift cards are only redeemable in-store.

Seeming how these weren’t door crasher items, or new releases I figured getting up at 6:30am and heading directly to the store, I’d be able to pick up all the items without having to line up to get into the store. First to Best Buy. the parking lot was packed, but I managed to find a spot a little ways away. Walking into the store I overheard tales of people walking out, who had been in line since 5am.

Entering the store, it was wall to wall people everywhere. Lineups to checkout circled the store and filled many isles. It wasn’t hard to make it to the Xbox 360 game isle, and even pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Gears of War. Although I had to buy the Limited Edition Gears of War and ended up paying full price.

Futureshop was my next planned stop, for a second wireless controller, directly across the road from Best Buy. It had started to rain, and still the lineup to get in, a full hour after the store opened, is around the corner of the store and the PetSmart that’s attached to it. No way was I waiting in the rain.

Instead I came home, and popped in Gears of War.

Here it is, 10 minutes until Boxing Day, and I have no Boxing Day flyers.

Normally we receive a town newspaper every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Every year the last paper before Christmas day is HUGE with Boxing Day sales flyers. This year, that paper would be delivered on Christmas Eve. No paper, no flyers.

I didn’t hold out much hope that we’d receive a paper today, and we haven’t.

I’d much rather read the flyers over a morning cup of coffee, but now I’ll have to surf the web. I’m positive I’m going to miss some deals. The retailers can blame Whitby This Week, or our local delivery person, for the lack of my business.

This is not the first time we’ve had issue. We’ve missed grocery flyers, one day sales at Toys ‘r’ us, and a number of other great opportunities. Numerous complaints have been filed, and it looks like I’ll have to file another.

Christmas has always been good to be, and this year was no exception. Here’s a list so next Christmas I’ll remember what I got, after it’s all been integrated.

DVD List

• Pirates of the Carribean - Dead Man’s Chest
• The Whole Nine Yards

Clothes

• Waffle Weave Long Sleeve Shirt w/tshirt
• Baseball Shirt
• Blue Waffle Weave Shirt

Misc

• Wired Magazine subscription
• Back Massager

Photography

• Optex Tripod

Toys

• Indoor RC Helicopter
• R2D2 Potato Head

Appliances

• Magic Bullet
• Ice3 Pop Dispensing Fridge
• Paper/CD Shredder

Xbox 360 Games

• Lego Star Wars II
• Lord of the Rings - Battle for Middle Earth II

Gift Certificates

• $50 Best Buy
• $50 FutureShop

Board Games

• Simpsons Clue

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