Awkward Family Photos and Verbal Analogies, SAT-Style

[We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin: Today is "Family Harmonica Day".]

The Awkward Family Photo calendar said so.

"Why on earth", you ask, "do you have an Awkward Family Photo calendar?!?!"

Good question.

Have you ever heard of "photo-bombing"? Usually, it's a practice where someone jumps into another's scene while a photo is being taken, without the primary subjects noticing. Benedict Cumberbatch and squirrels alike have been known to take up the hobby.

At our house, it's what happens when you ask friends to babysit whilst you attend a wedding, and they see fit to grace our walls with said calendar's presence, without you noticing until after they had left for the night. In this case, the calendar literally "photo-bombed" our wall.

Fortunately, it's turned out to be quite the useful calendar with so many helpful holidays written in. Today is "Family Harmonica Day", and "Dress Like a Hobbit" comes later this month. And then there are other important occasions such as "Polyester Jumpsuit Day" and "Family Sweater Day". If you haven't gotten your harmonica on yet, though, you'll want to hurry. The day is almost done!

Know how Mr. Dude and I are celebrating this year's "Family Harmonica Day"? We're sitting side by side working on our respective computers while Little Guy sleeps. Ah, the life of a nerd and his wife. He's doing PowerShell scripting for work and I just finished up a freelance gig wherein I kinda-sorta-not-really played the part of a web developer.

Actually I was migrating content from one website to another, which really just means I was a glorified copy-and-paste wizard. But a wizard nonetheless, mind you. I'm working on getting my staff and a horse as cool as Shadowfax.

[#LOTRreferenceFTW]

What's that you say? You're surprised that I dove into the world of web development?

Me, too. Sometimes these things just land in my lap and I take them - always good to learn new skills and earn a bit of extra cash, right?

Mr. Dude, however, was more focused on the fact that I was uploading content into a WordPress site.

Mr. Dude: "That's not web development, Stephanie!"
Me: "Well, you're just doing PowerShell. That's not really programming."
Mr. Dude: "Yes it is!"
Me: "Then working with WordPress sites is web development. So there."

Very sophisticated arguing, I tell you. But a valid point, unless of course you agree that

HTML : WordPress :: C++ : PowerShell

If that's true, then WordPress really is nothing like "true" web development, whatever that means. I'm still accepting the title of "Copy and Paste Wizard", though.  

Happy "Family Harmonica Day"! 

[GASP!!!]

[The title is an onomatopoeic reference to me gasping for air after drowning in the ocean that is buying a home and moving into it ... all with one very wiggly and mobile Little Guy and a Mr. Dude who is working overtime right now.]

That's right, people. We bought a house. And Mr. Dude officially has a "man cave" that is his to do with as he pleases. 

[Can you say "ridiculously happy geek"?] 

Aside from putting our laundry machines downstairs eventually to accommodate a larger dining room, Mr. Dude has a sizable space to use with plans for a full bar, a media area [with surround sound for him ... and sound-proofed floors for his wife's ears], his computer desk and an extra table for working on tech projects. 

That extra table is important, people. 

Because there are stories from his past that still haunt him. 

Stories of using a soldering gun to repair a laptop. 

Indoors. 

On his mother's dining room table. 

With a tablecloth. 

That now has a small hole burned into it. 

So he's banned from doing said tech projects in such places. And thus we're getting him his own tech work bench/table/space. 

But I digress. 

For Christmas, I promise I actually did get him a tech-related present, despite me listing a few things I vehemently declared I would not get for him. 

Yes, that is a Companion Cube Ice Cube Tray. And warning sign coasters. Because a geek's bar needs to be tricked out with appropriately geeky stuff, right? 

The full bar is going to be Tron-themed, complete with blue and orange neon mixed in with acrylic. 

[Mr. Dude really likes acrylic.] 

I figured that Portal 2 was the same colors and cool enough that he'd be okay with something of a mash-up for his theme. 

The wife guessed right. Booyah!

And as a bonus, I got Geek Points from ThinkGeek AND my husband. Double booyah! 

Also on the list of "you-know-I-love-my-husband-a-LOT-when-I-buy-him-ridiculous-stuff-like-this": 

[Exhibit A: Valentine's Day gift - Mario Mushroom Tap Lights. That I found in a consignment shop. For $3 each.] Before you think I'm a cheap-o gift-giver, I also told him I'd play one of the Mario games with him for an evening. If you believe this infographic about how much a stay-at-home-mom's time would be worth in the "outside world", then my time is worth about $20/hour, give or take. Assume that an evening of video games is about 4 hours [because that's all I think I can handle before I go cross-eyed and want to pull all my hair out], then the gift is at least $80. There, now you can't think I'm a cheapo. And Mr. Dude is ridiculously excited for me to voluntarily play video games with him. Yes, I love him that much.

[Exhibit B: Command Gold Onesie, 24 months. That I found at the same consignment store. Also for just $3.] Yes, that's Little Guy's size. But when I called Mr. Dude to tell him I found him a present, and he saw it when he came home from work, he definitely agreed that it was a gift for him. Because what nerd wouldn't want their son to proudly sport Kirk's uniform? As long as our son doesn't end up doing commercials for an online travel company, we're okay ...

[Bonus Items: Classic Children's Books] Because there are some titles that you buy immediately when you see them in such good condition at the consignment shop. So while Mr. Dude is trying to convince Little Guy to be a computer nerd, I'm going to be instilling a love of books into him. Hurray for a growing library!

In the meantime, my apologies for leaving you all hanging for so long. I know you were just dying to hear about all the funny things Mr. Dude has been up to in all of his geekery these past couple of months. Or maybe you were just living life as usual. Or perhaps you were too busy playing Age of Empires with Mr. Dude to realize I hadn't been writing about his antics? 

Countdown to Christmas!

If you hadn't guessed, I'm one of those people.

You know, the folks who try not to give Christmas the time of day until after Thanksgiving has passed.

No Christmas music.

No Christmas decorating.

And definitely no Christmas tree or lights.

I keep up my fall home decor until the day after Thanksgiving and enjoy a day full of turkey, family members (not to be confused with the turkeys), and giving thanks.

Folks, it's now after Thanksgiving.

Time for Christmas! 

We took a rather long and crazy trip to CA to visit family last week, so of course I have lots of nerdy happenings to relate to you. But it also meant that we had lots of things to unpack and clean.

My reward for finishing it all?

A cup of coconut 'nog (don't knock it till you try it), decorating for Christmas, and watching this:

Oh, Kermit. How we love your endearing rendition of Dickens' classic tale.

[This is where I'd like to draw your attention to the resolution on the TV screen. You'll note that it's kind of fuzzy, because it's only a DVD and not a Blu-Ray. Gasp! Mr. Dude will be ecstatic to find out that I actually noticed the difference in quality after all the times he's pointed it out and I've simply shrugged my shoulders because I neither noticed nor cared. I suppose if you're going to have HD, you may as well use it to its full potential, right? Drats. I think he's rubbing off on me. Meanwhile, I'm searching Amazon for a Blu-Ray copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol.] 

Only 21 days till we celebrate the birth of our Savior! What are some of your traditions to celebrate the season?