Luke's Letter to Santa

Obtained a tree

Tonight, Nana took us to dinner at Pen's, and afterward, we stopped by the fire station to buy our Christmas tree. We always like to buy our trees from the fire station. The guys at the station told us one year that they net around $10,000 per year on tree sales. That's money that goes to a good cause, so we're happy to help out. Plus, their trees are really nice.

Here are some pictures of the tree buying, plus some artsy ones of my new LED lights.

Christmas Lights are up

Every year, Becky encourages me, with much nagging and gnashing of teeth, to go outside and hang Christmas lights on and around the house. You'd think with my Grandpa Guier's genes, that I would be the guy with his entire house outlined in rope lights, ten inflatable Santas in the yard, reindeer on the roof and votive lights defining the driveway.

In fact, I'm the opposite. I actually dread hanging lights on the house, and it's predominantly for one main reason: those stupid incandescent mini lights. Every year, we fight our way through the strings, trying to isolate the burned out bulbs and restore the string to complete working order. Then, after the strings have been installed, weeks later, whole sections of them will go dark. Usually, in the freezing cold and sleet, I will go out and jiggle the lights and they'll come back on. I am then left with the uncomfortable realization that I have a potential fire hazard in the shorted cord, but rationalize leaving it there since the bushes are far enough away from the house. Who cares if the bushes burn down? At least the house is safe. And besides, it's 33 degrees and sleeting right now. Can a fire really start in the sleet? Forget it, I'm going inside.

So, it was with great angst that I once again got the prodding from Becky. As we started unloading the boxes and checking the cords, it was obvious that more than 50% of them required bulb replacement. And since bulb replacement involves an elaborate procedure of identifying the good bulbs from the two or more bad bulbs hiding in the string, I was not enthused to start this process once more this year.

As Becky was sitting down to debug the strings, I told her, "Forget it, hon. I'm going to the P-ville Pharmacy." I was intent on getting complete replacement strings rather than spend one minute debugging older strings.

As I arrived at the pharmacy, and walked down the Christmas decorations aisle, it was as if a choir of angels opened up above me. My eyes landed on a shelf plentifully stocked with LED lights. Hallelujah! It's about freaking time! I've been saying for years that they should make LED Christmas lights. And there they were, sitting on the shelf in front of me, hundreds of them, waiting to be bought!

I ran back up front to grab a shopping cart, now frenzied into thinking someone may take all the lights before I got back with my cart. I ran up to the shelf and literally started scooping boxes of LED lights into my cart. It was then that I realized that these lights were probably more expensive than the $3 per box incandescent lights I'm used to buying. Indeed, they were. The LED lights were $15 per box. Ouch. But I had expected that.

I did some quick computations (for both geometry of the layout and cost of the purchase) and decided to get eight strings of blue, eight strings of red, and four strings of multi-colored. Ringing in at about $340, I figured this was a fair price to pay to avoid having to sweat with the bulbs ever again. Plus, I rationalized further, these lights use less energy, last longer, etc., etc., etc. I couldn't put a cost to those intangibles, but could easily lump them into the positive column of my already-convinced trade study.

Returning home, and proud as a primeval hunter, I strutted up to Becky to show her my capture. (She was, of course, still bent over fixing the old strings.) It didn't take much time to convince her, and within thirty minutes, the new strings were on the bushes and the old strings were in the trash.

I had just enough to do the junipers, the laurels and the hollies. Ultimately, I'd like to have them wired into the garlands, and a few along the railings and in the shorter trees (both in the front and the back). But that will have to wait until next year, when I can justify plunking down another $300 for lighting that gets displayed only one month every year.

For now, the Christmas tree itself is still wired with the remaining working incandescent lights, but I put them formally on notice. Yes, I found myself actually talking to the strings of remaining lights sitting on the floor: "One burnout from you guys, and you're outta here!"

Just try me. I've got my VISA card ready, and I'm prepared to use it!

007 is Back

Becky and I went to see the new Bond movie last night, and although I don't do movie reviews like James, I will say that the movie was awesome! It's nice to see the movies return to the Fleming novels and do away with all the campy dialog and overdone gadgets. The movie was an incredibly intense ride, true to the book (though updated to be modern), and Daniel Craig is amazing as the new Bond. Eva Green ain't half bad either!

You should definitely go see it if you haven't already.

A Day at the Zoo and the Air and Space Museum

We took Mike and his kids, and my kids too, to spend the day off after the holiday at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum near Dulles, and the National Zoo. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, the sun being out all day and the temperature a nice mild 60 degrees.

We wore the kids out pretty well, because most of them slept the whole way home.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have all the family here--well, almost all. Dad had to stay back in New Ulm, so we miss having him with us.

It's been a great, very chaotic day. Six children, three dogs, and five adults makes for a full house! As always, Becky outdid herself with a glorious bird, beautifully browned and moist and juicy inside. Along with it, we had asparagus, corn, stuffing (Yankee and cornbread), mashed potatoes, gravy, relishes, pickles, cranberry sauce, beets, and five kinds of pie: raspberry, pumpkin, sweet potato, pecan and sour cherry. Quite the feast indeed!

This year, we started a tradition where we set out a basket with blank index cards. Through the day, people were encouraged to write down on the cards what they were thankful for. Then, during dinner, we read out all the entries:

Here are the photos from the day:

Some Recent Blooms

Every autumn, we give the lemon tree a pruning and then bring it inside for the winter. And, every year, it blooms right after coming indoors. Here are some of the better looking blooms, although the entire tree is in bloom... at least 300 blooms, I'm guessing. The whole family room is scented with it's jasmine-like perfume.


Also, this time of year, the Christmas cactus blooms. It's a little early for Christmas, but still, it's very pretty.

Argon Charity Night

Last night, Argon participated in a charity event supporting the Loudoun Literacy Council. Julia and Beth joined me from Argon, with Keith ending up a no-show. The event was a spelling bee, and it was a lot of fun. Our guest judges were the Loudoun county teacher of the year (whose name I forget), Bill Ready (three time space shuttle astronaut), and state senator Mark Herring.

It was a fun night, even if we didn't come in first place. It was gratifying to know that we did better than the folks at the Loudoun Times Mirror. And all for a very good charity.

The James Bond title sequences

I'll probably go see the new James Bond movie this weekend. It's getting really good reviews, and I think it has a chance to bring back some of the glory from the early Connery movies. (And do away with all of the over the top gadgets and groan-producing double entendres.)

As a Bond purist, I think all the movies that followed Ian Fleming's books were good movies. That includes most of the Sean Connery movies, definitely On Her Majesty's Secret Service (for which George Lazenby got shafted... it was one of the best movies made). The only Roger Moore movie I liked was Live and Let Die. All the rest of the movies, including the Brosnan and Dalton ones were schlock, in my opinion. I am anxious to see how Daniel Craig works out.

With that in mind, there's no question that all of the title sequences were good, no matter which movie you're talking about. And here's an awesome link to all the James Bond title sequences:

Martin Klasch: Video: The James Bond title sequences

Luke and the Colonel

We had a special guest speaker tonight at our Cub Scout den meeting.

Col. O1iver N0rth was kind enough to talk to the boys about the history of Virginia, particularly around where we live. For instance, did you know that George Washington, when he was sixteen years old, led a survey crew from Alexandria to Winchester, mapping out what is now Route 7? We also learned about Gen. Washington's friend, Daniel Morgan, who was a frontiersman, fighting hostile Indians and Frenchmen.

The highlight of the Colonel's speech was when he showed the boys his 1803 Jeb Stuart rifle. It was an antique muzzle loaded, flint-lock rifle, and each boy got to hold this 200 year old relic. Quite a treat!

Raingutter Regatta

Here are some of the photos from our Pack 39 Raingutter Regatta!

An Explorer Adventure

Tonight was Eddie's school performance. The kids did "An Explorer Adventure," in which the kids were transported back in time to the periods when explorers sailed the globe looking for new lands.

The show was cute, and Eddie did a very nice job singing and playing his instrument. Here is an excerpt from the show:

The show also featured Becky's Santa Maria, chock full of kids.

Refurbished blog

Some of you may notice a couple changes to the blog. Nothing too much, but I have added a decorative "ancient" Campbell tartan as a background, and replaced the orange pentagram (which I never really embraced) with the St. Andrew saltire of Scotland.

I'm going through this Scottish phase, so I thought I would dress up the blog as well. Sort of like putting my blog in a kilt.

Weekend Potpourri

This post has a whole lot of odds and ends from the weekend. I couldn't figure out a consistent theme, so I present them here as a loose collection of writings and photos.

Above is Becky's ship, the Santa Maria. Eddie has a school play this week, and Becky got enlisted to do the stage props. After stalking the local appliance store's dumpster for two weeks to find a suitably large box, she finally found one, cut it out, and painted it. Then, her Dad, who's here for the week, went nuts making PVC masts with dowel yards. Becky sewed some sails, painted a Spanish cross; Ed rigged up a crow's nest out of an old wicker hat, and voila!

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This morning, we went to church with Kathleen and Ed, and the boys wanted to wear tartan ties. Eddie is seen here wearing the MacGregor tartan, honoring his mother, while Luke is wearing his father's Campbell of Loudoun.

Notice also that Luke (aka Mr. Fancypants) has his new golden buttons on his blazer!

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Saturday night, we went to see Borat with Sharon and Desi. I don't want to give anything away, so I will simply say that we loved it. It was hilarious and very shocking!

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Can you guess who this is? It's not Eddie, though the resemblance is very remarkable. Becky took the picture to choir practice on Thursday night, and the ladies in the choir thought it might be me. Nope. I was as blonde as flax when I was a kid.

It's Ed, Eddie's Grandpa, circa 1948.

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Finally, here's a story of punishment and redemption. After lunch on Saturday, I was eager to take a quick hour long nap. So I offered to the boys to watch some Spongebob Squarepants while I caught a few winks. As is always the case, they lasted about thirty minutes, when I was awakened by their squabbling downstairs. I hollered down at them to be quiet and stop fighting.

They quieted down for all of two minutes and started back up. So I hollered down at them once more, and told them both to come upstairs.

"Luke, you go to your room! Eddie, you go to yours! No more Spongebob!"

I settled back down to sleep, and after about another 15 minutes, I half noticed a shuffling in the room, and then a light tapping on my door. (Nevermore?)

I looked up, but there wasn't anybody there. The boys were supposed to be in their rooms, but someone had paid me a visit. Then, I noticed this note on my blanket. It was very sincere, for I had taken away their Spongebob, and they were truly sorry!

I called the boys in, forgave them and sent them back downstairs to watch their show, and gave up on my nap.

By the way, if one analyzes the apology note, it's clear to see who's the mastermind behind it. Both boys have about the same handwriting, but only Eddie calls Luke "Lucas." He has ever since Luke was born, and not even Luke calls himself that.