The Holtonian

We had the roes up

We had the roes up for a bit of spades action. I redeemed my level of play and got the Roe Holton machine going. We won the first game pretty handily but the second was a constant battle for control. My wife kept trying to go nill, double blind nill, but Roe and I kept setting her. There were two games where the person going nill lost on the first hand, I lost with the low club of six, a bit of a gamble to go nill with a six but I thought I could pull it off. Wifey lost with a four of clubs because Roe didn't have any clubs and through a diamond, it was horrendous for her. Roe and I pulled it off in the end though as the wife lost her nill bid and we made our win on the last two hands. It was fun.
      Other than that the tree is decorated thanks in part to my wonderful wife who busts out an Xmas tree like no other. I hung one ornament... though i helped take off the old lights so we could put new ones on, but the credit falls squarely on the uber wife--thats german for Super Wife.

Thanksgiving Trip to Chicago and Indiana

Well we made it back after a 10 hour or so drive from Indiana. We had a great Thanksgiving up in the Indiana Dunes/Chicago for the past week. Chicago was great, we toured the city with my folks showing wifey the various sites the city has. We showed her the Water Tower Mall and subsequent Water Tower.

Walked by the John Hancock Building

We ascended the Sears Tower. Which was pretty cool, it was pretty much only one of three Chicago landmarks I haven't seen, the other two being Wrigley (inside of it) and the Shed Aquarium.

It was a pretty impressive view

Here's a pic of the fam.

Then Wifey and I topped off the trip with a pie of Chicago style Pizza from Giordano's.

This Picture makes me hungry every time I look at it... it was the best pizza as it was all cheese!

We then on Wednesday drove in the middle of a blizzard to Indiana where we were staying for the week. The drive was terrible and a normally hour and a half drive turned into 3 hours due to traffic and snow. We made it there about a quarter to five and had just enough time to go to the outlet mall that was five minutes from where we were staying to do one quick hour of outlet shopping before the stores closed. The thing is they have all the same sales on Wednesday as they do on Friday but no one's there. So I got some Timberlands for cheap and some gifts for the wifey.

Turkey day was good we played football on the beach, the snow was all gone by morning. Then had a great night of turkey, ping pong, and lots and lots of wine. It was a great day.

Then Black Friday: we braved the outlet mall but to our surprise the lines weren't bad and the people weren't that numerous. I had to wait in line for two pairs of pants at Old Navy for about 10 minutes but that wasn't bad. I just thought back to Soviet Russia and was happy that capitalism has smaller lines.

The highlight of that day was Hunt's trip to the Sock Shop, a store specializing in socks, infact its all they sell. He spent a good 20 to 30 minutes in the sock shop, looking at various kinds of socks. From wool, to wick a way, to cotton, they had all a manner of sock. The store clerks were very helpful in providing useful sock pointers, and were a great aid to Hunt's Sock Shop shopping. He purchased some very expensive socks much to my amusement. The entire idea of a store soley aimed at selling socks cracks me up for some dumb reason. Here was the actual transation as it took place, if you look closely you can see a wall of socks behind the register. I informed Hunt they kept the nice socks behind the register to keep them away from vandals.

We then had a day of Football, sitting by the fire, and playing spades. No matter what team I was on I.e. playing with wifey or my brother Hunt, I lost. I was terrible, am Terrible, and am convinced there are only two people in this world that can predict my unpredictable spades bidding, Roe and Crabby. They're the only ones who seem to be able to harness my irregular play and insane Double Blind Nill Attack.

We came back today through a 10 hour drive entirely in rain. It didn't stop i don't think at all. It was a good trip though and we're looking forward to next year possibly doing the same thing.

Chicago Post

We made it ok up here to Chicago on monday. It was a long drive but we split it up well with food, gas, and pee breaks. Monday was spent sort of just hanging out with my folks, we got in in time for dinner and had that and then hit the bed as we were exhausted. We ended up taking copper and he's been good. Especially today as we had to go into town to see the sights and he made it all day in his cage so that was good.

We saw the Sears tower, one of maybe three tourist sites I hadn't seen in Chicago. It was pretty stinkin cool to go up in and man o man its tall. I kept thinking about if I were spiderman could i have the Keyhones to jump off the sears tower and trust my web to shoot out and be able to hold me.... I concluded I'd have to practice on the smaller Wrigley Building and Drake Hotel before I climbed the Sears.

Down town Chicago's great, I've been down there many times but it always impresses me. So busy and just insane. We went to Marshall Fields and had lunch at their fancy restaurant and looked around at the Christmas decor. We walked around water tower and water tower mall a bit. Saw some pants at gap for 12 bucks but didn't have my size. Its odd the gap up here has totally different stuff than the gap in chatt.

We came back on the L which is the train in Chicago. Its elevated so hence the term "L." Then we sat around a bit and then went to China town for some chinese food. We ate too much and now I'm about to pass out.

My brothers get in tomorrow and wifey and I plan on eating some Chicago Style Pizza and then heading out to the Indiana Dunes, where my aunts have beach homes on lake michigan. Its also where thanksgiving will take place. WE'll also hit up the local Outlet mall. Last time I was here I went shopping on Wednesday at the outlet mall, saw a pair of timberlands for like 30 bucks, decided to come back on friday after thanksgiving, but failed to realize that Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year. The line was five stores long just to get into the store. So i'm hoping to beat the rush this year and if I see something good not put it off.

Cat and Dog Harmony, and other general stuff

So the cat and the dog have finally been getting along. The cat still prefers the basement as its his lair, that and he can do his duty in the crawl space. I don't think he's used the litter box since he's been here, we let him outside most of the time but sometimes we forget he's down there. Wifey's allergic to the cat so thats the new reason he's down there, it used to be cause he terrorized the dog and we just didn't like him.

We're gonna get to take the copper top with us on thanksgiving which is a huge relief as kennel costs were kind of rediculous and I didn't want to be away from my little Cop for a whole week. He's my little buddy.

We've had a busy weekend. The wife took the Praxis on Saturday which was super hard she tells me. I mean she took the history one and pretty much anything that ever happened is fair game. And on top of that they throw in social studies which pretty much encompases everything. I hated social studies as a kid, i was like, "this stuff is too general to be of any use to me." Granted in 4th grade I thought all school was getting in the way of lifes true meaning---playing with my Gi Joes.

I've been workin OT at my job to get some extra work done before i left for thanksgiving and also to get some extra moolah. I got a ton of stuff done, its amazing what can be done and how much one can get done after close of business. Work's getting tough as there are 6 people for the entire south east region on my team. I'm up to 60 cases or so, which isn't too bad for me as I've had 50 since June, but its just insane to keep track of them all.

Anywho, things are good, God is good, and looking forward to a week of time off. That being said probably not many blogs this week.

Random Thoughts

Barry Bonds MVP??? What a joke, I could win an MVP if I had steroids... "GIVE ME THE ROIDS" and I'll hit a few homers.

Wifey's got a new bizness going on, Pampered Chef selling, so if you're interested call her up and buy her stuff... if not for the stuff do it for charity... aka us.

Work: I'm sort of alone in my department as far as close friends go. Scotty's still there but he's out tuesdays and thursdays so it gets kind of lonely. Other than that its fine, just settling into the slow period prior to the new year. Its hard though cause my case load is up to 60 + now, thats basically 60 plus companies I have to worry about making sure everything's running right on their cases. Its like an air traffic controller only I don't have planes flying at me, which is something to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving's coming up... cool.

I'm killing Nazis... in a video game. I borrowed call of duty from crabb dog and i'm almost through it already. Its fun, I stopped playing tonight as i was starting to see nazis that weren't on the computer screen.

Copper has bad gas due to walmart brand dog food. We're going to switch to something else when this bag runs out.

I have bad gas due to bean soup for lunch... too much information?

Does anyone kind of miss the tension that we had prior to the election? I mean I was ready to have a heart attack about it but man it made life interesting and we had passion... now its just sort of ho hum.

I guess thats all I got.

Christian American Idol

We went out to a Christian American Idol thingy tonight out in Bonnie Oaks. A friend of ours entered a music contest for the heck of it and ended up getting in as a finalyst so we went out to support her. It was pretty hard not to laugh at some of the bands. Some were just terrible, some were good, and others were just average. The prize for winning the contest was a free recording session and a possible shot at the big time.
     One band seemed to rip off elements of Ozzie and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Another band sounded like a Christian OAR and were pretty good. One band had a good singer kind of a Third Day sounding guy but the guitar was so terrible that I had to get up and leave because it gave me a desire to stab forks in my head. Our friend didn't win, but she made some good contacts. Her song by far was the most deep of all the songs we heard and I think she's angling more for the song writer thing anyway. But it was fun and decent entertainment for free.

Recent Transdoings

I've failed to keep you in the loop of the transdoings of the holtons, for this I apologize. For the fourth strait month we've incurred an expense that I could not budget for. August we ran into a broken fridge, then we had to purchase plane tickets for a wedding in texas in december, then september saw us paying 500 bucks to keep wifey's car running, then october saw us purchasing a new car, and finally our heater has busted. It was quite expensive to fix, warranty covered some of the costs, but not enough. So needless to say I won't be buying an xbox anytime soon. We didn't know it was broken till tuesday and we had the guy fix it on wednesday.
······But anyway I come home around two on wednesday to see all the leaves in my yard are raked to the corner of the fenced in part of the house. I was extremely puzzled as I did not do such an act nor wanted to. I'd tried numerous times to rake but had to stop because of rain or lack of day light. I sit there looking at this tremendously huge pile and think to myself, "Surely wifey could not have raked such a large amount of leaves??" But surely she did, and stop calling me surely.
······She got out and busted it up for three hours and as a reward I let her play in the leaves... just kidding.

I was truly impressed with her hard work as it took me an entire hour just to get them to the street from where she had gotten them.

....It was pretty hysterical to throw copper into the pile and see him sink and then try to figure out how to get out of the pile.

Halo 2.0 is not a Miracle Drug

   I went to Strowmo's tonight to play Halo2. It was pretty cool we played the co-op mode and it was pretty hard to tell what was going on. The game had some cool aspects the double guns were pretty swank and the movie scenes are cool but the xbox didn't seem to be able to keep up. Certain scenes would have to readjust themselves to get the picture right. The game didn't have as good of a flow as far as gameplay like halo 1, some scenes just seemed choppy and it was hard to tell what was going on. I liked some of the videos despite the wierd video problems. I liked the double magnums and the assault rifle with the zoom capabilities. I disliked the rocket launcher being less powerful that was my favorite weapon and they kind of made it weaker. I liked how the upped the needler too that was a great gun that got better.
      The story seems kind of weak and I hate playing as the badguy alien dude. I'm a firm fan of master chief and I felt disloyal not being him and defending the earth.

The earth levels were pretty cool, street to street combat but I didn't like the space levels much. I also don't like how the vehicles can get destroyed, there was something cool with the fact that the tank and warthog were indestructable. Also the plot and parts of the game borrow so heavily from popular movies that it sort of cheapens the game. So much Starship troopers similarities, then some serious star wars knockoffs, and it just didn't have the cool and subtle plot of the first game. And the movies in the game just seemed cheesy or hard to follow when it was in regard to the covenant. I've heard that Halo 1 was about Master Chief and that this one is supposed to be about the Covenant, but I don't like the covenant, i want to destroy them. You play an entire game fighting against them, and now you have to be them?? Thats lame-o.
      Most of my friends are probably thinking 'who cares, its the multi-player that counts.' But being a kid who grew up playing games by himself aka i was a dork, I'm always more interested in the one player aspect of the game. I mean the game was fun, but it wouldn't make me want to buy an Xbox at all. Now Halflife 2 may make me want to buy a new computer, but say la vee, can't afford even one megabyte. But I'm glad I didn't like Halo 2 much as now I won't be so tempted to play it night and day. I'll still play it when I can but I'll stick to the pc and upcoming Zelda and Metroid Echoes for the GC.
   

Song by Song Review of U2's Atomic Bomb

I got a hold of U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Here's a song by song take by yours truly...

1. Vertigo: This song is by far the most rockin. However its disappointiing because its the first released song and we all were expecting something like this, a homage if you will to earlier punkish U2. The rest of the cd is very different than this in mi opinion.
2. Miracle Drug: One of the best songs on the album. A very honest and touching song that still has a good beat to it. Its hard to explain, similar to where the streets have no name would be my guess.
3. Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own: When i heard this title I immediately thought of "Stuck In a Momment" which is funny since the song is similar, a little slower and a little more passionate.
4. Love and Peace or Else: This song is pretty cool cause its way different. I'd compare it to "Bullet the Blue Sky" as far as that song didn't fit with the tone of Joshua Tree, but was still a great song and fit with the theme. I think this one will be a fan favorite. I can imagine a movie fight scene with this song in the back. Which would be ironic cause it seems to advocate non-violence.
5. City of Blinding Lights: Intro is great, piano and guitar, Edge most likely playing both. Then an electric mandolin sort of thing pops in and rocks it up. The corus is great, "Oh oh oh you look so beautiful tonight, in the city of blinding light..." Great song for those kids to hook up with on when trying to score that first kiss. Play that in the back and go in for the kill!
6. All Because of You: Elevation??? Sort of similar, with a duller guitar. Its a decent song, but not as lyrically good as I think the others are.
7. Man and a Woman: A really weird song... nothing like U2 has done before. I think Tony Bennett, or Mel Tormay for some reason. Its almost got a night lounge feel to it, but its good. Its similar to Ground Beneath her feet. Actually it sounds like something off the U2 b sides of the 80s but i can't recall which one.
8. Crumbs from Your Table: A slow decent song but nothing super duper. Its good, not a skipper (skipper = one you hit the next song button on the cd player/mp3 player).
9. One Step Closer: Very simple song, barely any instruments, a guitar faintly in the back, mostly Bono. A song about life in my opinion, as we get older, take more steps we get closer to... in my life, closer to my heavenly father... not sure if thats what Bono's going for.
10. Original of the Species: Sounds like a beatles song...
11. Yahweh: "With or without you" =-----"take this soul stranded in some skin and bones and make it sing" good line.

The album is a very very good album. Very powerful, has possibly the most commongrace/christian imagery of any u2 album. Its not hard like Vertigo, vertigo almost doesn't belong with the cd in my opinion. Its a great song don't get me wrong, but doesn't seem to be the same tone/pitch of the rest of the album. I'll be very interested to see these songs live as it will be interesting if they make them more upbeat. Otherwise it will be more like a slower concert, which wouldn't be too bad. I'm not sure what the Atomic Bomb title has anything to do with this CD, there's no song with that title. Josiah asked me 'how does one dismantle an atomic bomb?" I told him Bono would say, "With Love man!" Anyway, the cd is good, not what I was expecting. Though i still like it alot. It doesn't have any annoying songs like "In a little while" and "wild honey" which i thought were really lame girly songs.
      For those who worry, I will still buy the album. I like the case, thats why I don't like buying i tunes because I don't get a booklet and cool little cd thingy. My favorite song has to be "city of blinding lights," its just great. I'll be jamming to this all day at work. Thanks Josiah for hooking me up, you're always the man to go to for stolen music, you're like Red from Shawshank, "I hear you're a man who can get things..."

Incredibles not entirely Incredible

We went to see the Incredibles this past weekend with much of the youth nation. The movie reminded me a lot of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, at least the bad guys both lived on islands, were inventers, and used robotic type devices to destroy the world. The movie was very entertaining, but not very funny. There's a cubicle scene where Mr. Incredible works that is pretty funny, his boss is the "INCONCEIVABLE!" Guy from Princess bride, which was pretty funny.
      The movie just didn't have the wit of the previous Pixar flicks. This movie seemed more adult, hence the PG rating. The themes are so much more mature, I mean the incredibles are dealing with a dysfunctional family, a socially challenged daughter, a mischevious son, Mr. Incredible struggles with his "calling" in life, and Mrs. Incredible is the glue trying to hold it all together while bathing their baby in the sink. All the time trying to each in their own way suppress their super powers and blend in with the rest of society. Samual L Jackson was actually the funniest character as Frozone, a Iceman type superhero. The movie was fun, and reinforced my life long desire to be a super hero, but in the end the chuckles just weren't there.

Holton Tells Celebrities to Eat it, nothing really new

This is meant in jest... so I hope its funny. If any of the celebrities I mention happen to read this, don't sue me.

After the election, I would like to tell the following people to "eat it"

The Boss----"oooh you aint so hot now Mr. American with your big guitar. You're in the bad lands now Boss, cause you lost. You can come into the secret garden, secret rose garden to hear bush thank america for voting for him.... eat it!"

Dixie Chicks---"Oooh you ain't the hot chicks anymore.. ITS LAURA BUSH, She's
MUY CALIENTE!!! Why Dont you go back to Dixie, you chicas! Eat it!"

John Mellencamp: "Ooooh don't it hurt so good Johnny! If you need a hand to hold on to there's always W's. I think Kerry came a crumblin down? EAT IT!"

Pearl Jam: "OOoh, Jam this in your Pearl, Kerry lost! You know Jeremy spoke in class today and you know what he said, 'I want the W for my president!' So sit down and EAT IT!"

Michael Stipe: "OOoooh looks like you lost your religion and the election... sooo sorry! Why don't you write a few more crappy albums like the one you released last month, that will make people vote for kerry.... or how about figure out what the Frequency is Kenneth, because it ain't kerry my man! Eat it!"

Janeane Garofalo: "Just give it up... you're not funny anymore, and you annoy america. Eat it!"

Ben Affleck: "ooooh you're a terrible actor and an even more terrible democrat! Eat it! Though congrats on Jennifer Garner, she's a good catch."

Michael Moore: "Ooooh lose weight, start showering, stop talking, and realize you lost my man! Whats the temperature here in America? Its W degrees Farenheit! I'd say 'eat it' but you need to lose weight.... so don't eat it, but verbally/metaphorically eat it as Bush has won again!"

America has spoken, so sit down! I'd also like to thank the following celebrities who stuck their careers on the line for the Bushy.

Stephen Baldwin: You may be a so so baldwin, but you're the best baldwin in my book.

Kirk Cameron: I too have experienced some growing pains, but you rock!

Drew Carey: Drew, you are a funny fat man which gives hope to me, thank you for your true blue colors.

Shannon Doherty: Uh... way to go... I guess...

Dennis Hopper: Man, you're like the best man and if this blog gets less than 60 hits a day man it will like blow up man!

Ted Nugent: you are the biggest nutball I've ever seen, but keep on rocking and shooting things.

Soccer Action

So I played soccer tonight, our last regular season game. This one was a tough game, we played a very formidable opponent. I was pretty nervous as I knew a few guys on their team and knew they were more atheletic and soccer skill oriented than our guys. But the other team seemed to lack a game plan, they didn't seem to have a good execution once they were pressing on our goalie. Granted our goalie is pretty good, really smart and real aggressive.
.....We played pretty sluggish, the guys played last night and lost to the team of MK's. I didn't know about the game so I missed it, but we were handed our third loss but both last night and tonight didn't matter much since we had already made the playoffs.
....Tonight was a lot better in my opinion as we were playing a finesse team, which is why we had some trouble with them. But when you play a finesse team you can't be as rough. IF you try to take someone out they'll just make a move and make you look stupid, which happened a few times tonight. It wasn't nearly as rough as it could have been and I tried to tell the guys to keep the physical play to a minimum. I don't mind playing physical/rough if the other team is. I mean if they're gonna stoop to that level, I'm not just gonna sit there and get my face pounded into the floor, I'm gonna push back. I wouldn't have to if the refs called penalties but its intramural soccer and when people are slaves to Covenant's system of practical service they just don't really care about reffing much, which I don't blame them for.
...But tonight was tough, we battled to a 1 - 1 tie and went through both 5 minute overtimes rather quickly. It was difficult because the other team had the ball on our end the whole time in the second OT and we couldn't sub because that side of the court was opposite of where we were. But we made it through and went to shoot outs and we made all but one of our first four and they only made one so we went on to win it.
...If i could offer a criticism to the other team, I'd tell them not to fall down too much. They seemed at times fishing for calls, but a finesse team relies upon speed and agility, not slowing the game down and giving us fatties a chance to catch our breath. Because they're a finesse team they seemed to be easy to trip up and a little too easy to fall over. I mean we're physical, but if you trip over the ball you trip over the ball. They complained a bit too, which to me, if a ref's not calling it then don't complain, get up and go get the ball back.

On another soccer note, my dog is really really good at soccer. He can dribble, pick the ball up, and knock it down the stairs. Its hilarious to seem him nudge the ball with his nose back and forth. He won't play with me much, but it may be because he's afraid I'll kick the ball at him.

I hope bush wins

Well i'm hoping for Bush to win it big Bushy style.

   I voted early this morning before work, it was pretty exciting i must
admit. I failed to vote last election due to my laziness and I never got an
absentee vote. I voted pretty much a strait repub ticket though where there was
no repub choice I opted for the right in. I voted for Fred Thompson, Anyone, and
Chriss Holton. I think they have a good shot at winning, they're all three good
candidates.
      But I hope bush wins he's more attractive.