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Christmas Report

Jason — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:40:50 +0000

Back at work, sadly, after an action packed christmas weekend. I figured I’d post a quick update as to the goings on.

I left work at 2 on wednsday and spent the time relaxing and winding down. Not too much to report there that’s terribly interesting.

Christmas Eve I wandered over to my parents house to help prepare for all of the food items my mom was making for the family gathering later that day. Once that was done around noonish, it was mostly relaxing until my sister got finished with work and came over for the opening of the presents.

You know you’re getting older when getting clothes on Christmas is actually a good thing. This year shall be known as the year of the sock (which is good because I needed more socks). My parents got my sister and her husband a new vacuum cleaner and individually wrapped a lot of the attachments and various bits and pieces of it. And my sister got my mom a game of quit-opoly which is a quilt themed monopoly type game. It came damaged so my sister wrapped each individual part in a seperate pacakge. So they both did it to each other.

As for me, I’m sporting the new 6″ kindle and a Razer Naga mouse. Along with an x-rite i1 display lt for color calibrating my monitors which is really handy, although I haven’t used it on my main LCD yet.

After the present opening we had a little downtime before the rest of the family arrived. My grandma and grandpa were there, as well as one of my aunts and uncles and a cousin which is about as many people as we could fit in my parents house. We ate, played some games (apples to apples) before my sister and grandma and grandpa left when we switched over to a couple of games of pitch.

Christmas day I went back over to my parents to hang out a bit more. Got to watch the mandatory showing of A Christmas Story in two parts because I came in on the middle of the first showing. After which we played some quilt-opoly (my dad won) and hung out some more.

Sunday I went with my roommates to see a couple of houses that they were looking at. The first one we saw (well the second, the first first one was delayed since their selling agent never actually told them we were coming, so they had to clean up and clear out for a little while) was a ranch type house but the bedrooms were tiny which killed it entirely from considering.

Back to the first house in Oneida and it was really nice. The downstairs was really well set up and the kitchen was probably the best laid out kitchen of all the houses they’ve looked at. Nice big bedrooms, big back yard, only small problem was the neighborhood was a bit less than ideal (neighbors were a bit close) but not insurmountable.

Then we went off to a house in Sherrill which was really nice looking but a little too big for them and the taxes were pretty high which would make the financials a little rocky. They decided after talking about it for a bit to go back to their agent’s office and put in an offer on the house in Oneida. So hopefully that goes well. They’ve got until Tuesday night at 5pm to respond to the offer, so we shall see.

And now…back to work.

Christmas: Begin!

Jason — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 21:21:08 +0000

For a lot of different reasons this year I haven’t been really feeling too christmasy. Too many stressful things going on inside the family and with friends to really feel like it’s coming around. But it finally hit at the end of last week and I listened to my traditional first run through in it’s entirety of Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Christmas Eve And Other Stories which I’ve been doing for years now. So things are still stressful and all that but I’m not feeling as blargh about it all. At least for a little while.

Yesterday I went over to the christmas party on my dad’s side of the family which was good again this year. Very few cases of “who the heck is that person?!?” and I spent most of the party (probably tragically) sitting near the desert table with my immediate family, talking with my aunt who’s house was hosting the party and whoever else happened to wander on by. The older I get the more I appreciate seeing family who I haven’t seen in forever. A lot of those people I only see around christmas time. So it’s nice catching up and chatting.

All of my christmas shopping is done this year, and I’m just waiting for 3 boxes from amazon to arrive on tuesday before I have everything assembled.

I’m taking off work at 2pm on Wednesday and I took thursday off for the heck of it. Friday I’ll be going over to my parents house all day to help prep for the party that’s going to happen over there in the evening for my mom’s side of the family. Officially designated the “people without little kids” party because my parents house isn’t terribly child-proofed. My mom’s side of the family’s traditional christmas gathering at my grandma’s house splintered apart a few years ago since they were getting too old to handle all the running around and prep work involved in a party. So we moved the main gathering to the summer and there’s a bunch of different smaller parties going on around christmas. So my parents will be hosting the people who don’t have small children (my grandparents and a few others plus my immediate family) which I’m looking forward to.

Not sure what’s going on Christmas day yet, but usually I end up at my parents for a while. Not sure if that’ll happen this year or not yet.

An Update On Happenings

Jason — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:04:38 +0000

Just an update-y sort of post today.

First off, school. The latest project in my Digital Imaging course was to recolor a black and white photograph and make it look like it was always color. I went over to my grandmother’s to look at some of our old family photos and she showed me the wedding picture of my great great great grandparents (maybe another great on there…not sure exactly). It was definitely old, but it was in really good shape, so I ended up doing that. Finished it this week in class, although I think it could have turned out better if I had more time to tweak it (only got two class periods to work on it and he doesn’t want us working on stuff outside of class). Turned out all right though. I’ll post it up here when I get my flash drive back.

Along those same lines, I decided it’s probably going to be a little bit before I manage to take some of the more theory oriented design courses, so I’ve got myself a textbook on design theory that I’m starting to get into. Not quite as good as taking a course, but the book is good and I’m learning a lot of interesting stuff (well, interesting to me anyway).

Moving away from learning and school stuff, I’ll be meeting up with my sister Saturday afternoon to hang out a bit and watch the Syracuse game. Looking forward to it, after the realization that we only really see each other on holidays anymore.

Man On A Horse

Jason — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:14:34 +0000

Urgh. Today is shaping up to be…awful. I got caught in the hall right as I was walking in and told something bad happened to our web app that needed fixing. But the e-mail saying what was wrong was total gibberish to me (except for the phrase “the customers are demanding answers!!!!”). So that’s getting sorted out and I’m taking the lull in the morning to post here…

Over the past couple weeks I’ve been working on a project for my lone class this semester, as I’ve mentioned previously. It’s coming along pretty well, I think. It’s a composite image of two chess pieces playing a game of chess with little people as the pieces on the board. On Monday I was able to finally grab a good park bench type shot to act as the scene, so that was the last big hurdle.

During class Tuesday the professor mentioned how it would be cool if I could have a guy on a horse (to act as one of the knights) but he didn’t know if it would be possible to get the shot or not. Well, I happen to know a guy with a horse (my uncle) and they were able to provide some nice pictures to use which should really add to the quality of the piece. I’m kinda regretting not taking more pictures at the Renaissance Festival the last couple years I’ve went because they’d be extremely useful right about now.

I’m also going over to my grandmothers house this weekend hopefully to look through some of her black and white pictures for something that could have color added to it (as is our next assignment for the class).

I’m also starting to go all out on my 2010 City of Heroes FArt competition entry for this month. The theme is romance and I’ll be doing an advertising poster for a super hero oriented dating service. I’m trying to work out the copy on the poster right now (jotting down ideas as I think of them while I work). Oh, I just realized I never posted my entry for last month here! What If? The Rogue Isles Olympics. (Make sure you click the image to see the full sized view) You’re probably not going to get a the in-jokes unless you play City of Heroes, but I’m really happy with how that particular design turned out (still).

Merry Christmas Eve!

Jason — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:55:26 +0000

Ahhh…finally. It’s Christmas Eve and my vacation has begun. I won’t be back to work (unless something explodes) until January 4th, so needless to say yesterday time was standing still. But it’s finally arrived. Vacation. Wooo!

The next several days are going to be consumed with family type stuff. I’m going over to my parents today for out main Christmas celebration as well as the (semi) gathering for my mom’s side of the family, then back there tomorrow more for hanging out purposes. Then I’m headed off to my aunts house for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family on Saturday.

Today’s going to feel looooong as well, because Wassy should be finishing up the Christmas-themed Frost piece at some point which I will be unable to see until this evening when I return home from my parents house. She did the inks last night and it’s turning out amazing, so I can’t wait to see colors.

But al that must wait until later, I’m off to get ready to visit my parents. To all 4 of you who read this, I hope you have a happy holiday.

Yup. It’s December.

Jason — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:07:00 +0000

We’re right in the middle of our first winter storm of the season right now. Snow, wind and sleet/freezing rain later on in the day. Fun! Today was also my first drive to work after moving further away in true winter conditions. We had a smaller event last week, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the weather we were getting today.

Altogether though, my drive was better than I was expecting it to be. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that during the hilly bit, a snow plow had just gone through and deposited a fresh coat of sand. Thankfully. I’m not looking forward to the drive home if the freezing rain prediction holds true though.

December also means planning for family gatherings and the dates of them this year have started to firm up. I’ll be busy the 24th through the 26th with Christmas family gatherings which works out fine for me. Going to be at my parents for Christmas Eve and Christmas and then out to one of my Aunts for the gathering for my dad’s side of the family. We might have some people over for Christmas Eve from my mom’s side…possibly. Not quite sure how that’s all going to shake out though.

Lets see, more random stuff. I did some re-measurement yesterday and it actually seems that I’ll be able to fit a new desk into my space in the office after all. Wassy was up there doing work last night so I figured I’d see where my chair would be pushed with her sitting there at her drafting table working and it actually looks like we have more space than I was initially thinking we would have. That always seems to be the case. So perhaps that can be a tax refund expenditure. We’ll see what happens, as I know I’m not getting nearly as much back this year as I have in previous years.

Thanksgiving Summary

Jason — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 03:22:04 +0000

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was definitely an enjoyable one this year.

As per usual, I woke up bright and early to head over to my parents house for our traditional putting up of the christmas tree and such. This year, I helped with thanksgiving dinner again (assembling the lasagna and making the lemon meringue pie were my tasks). Unlike last year though, we didn’t do turkey. But that was perfectly fine with me.

My mom had a migrane headache the day before so she was running a little bit late with preparations so we ended up starting doing the tree after the Macy’s parade started. But it seems like everyone was running late (since they changed the parade route this year) so it worked out. The christmas tree has seen better days. Some branches are a bit droopy this year and some parts of the top are being held on by zip ties. The thought was that it’s going to have to be replaced soon. Dah. Especially since all the trees out there are pre-lit which seem to break more often.

The afternoon lead to some Madden with my Dad. I finally broke my horrific losing streak and we *almost* got our franchise mode game up to the playoffs. One more play and we’ll be there, but it’s harder to organize now that I live further away than I used to.

Dinner time arrived and with it came my roommates (along with the Strawberry Shortcake Cake that Wassy made to bring over. Mmmm) and my sister and her husband. The rest of the evening was thoroughly enjoyable, I thought. Dinner was tasty and fun and after we broke out Apples to Apples and played a game which ended up being a really really fun time.

As per usual, I know I left out a bunch of stuff, but the most important bit was that it was a great start to vacation. Lots of fun hanging out with my friends and family.

Turkey Day Plans (Minus The Turkey)

Jason — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:00:34 +0000

It looks like plans are beginning to shape up for Thanksgiving this week, and it couldn’t come soon enough for me. I’ve used a vacation day to turn the 4 day weekend into a 5 day weekend and I could use the time off.

As per tradition, I’ll be heading over to my parents house early on. This year to help prep the lemon meringue pie and the lasagna (we’re having a non traditional thanksgiving dinner this year. No turkey) and put up the christmas tree like we do every year. New this year though my roommates are going to be joining my family for dinner later on (and bringing a tasty strawberry shortcake cake for desert. Mmmmm).

As far as what I’ll be doing in the meantime, I’ve been feeling the itch to start working again on some of my personal web design type projects that have been floating around in limbo for a while. I opened up the work that I was doing on my mom’s website last night and I’m not really sure I like where it’s going anymore. Sigh. This project is becoming epic.

2009 New York State Fair

Jason — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:01:12 +0000

I went to the state fair on friday with my Mom. We managed to catch some really nice weather and had a good time. Unfortunately, I accidentally left my camera in the car and my cell phone pictures didn’t come out all that great. I also left a lot out, I know. Too much stuff to write down and remember. If I think of anything else, I’ll edit it in later.

We went up early, before the buildings open since we’re both up early anyway. That turned out to be a really good idea since we were able to hit all the stuff in the buildings before it got way too crowded to move. We did the Center of Progress building first to check out the sand sculpture and see what products were being hawked this year. They had an amazing amount of dog themed booths this year and my Mom, being the crazy dog lady that she is, ended up almost buying several Maltese related items. Eventually she bought a hat. Mostly because it was really sunny out.

We made sure to grab some milk from the dairy building. The best milk ever. I have no idea how they make it taste that good, but…they do and it’s awesome. I wish I could have milk that good all the time…

One of the unexpected highlights was running into a guy who was doing a one man band type show. He had a drum kit strapped to his back, controlled mostly by his feet, a guitar and a harmonica. He was pretty goofy, but it was cool watching him play. You’ve gotta have a good amount of skill to play drums, guitar and lay a harmonica solo on top of it all.

We randomly ran into my uncle Dan and his family while we were looking at the chickens. Surprisingly we didn’t see them again for the rest of the day. Usually when something like that happens you tend to follow each other around (unintentionally or not). We also made stops over at the dairy barn to see the cows, and we also saw the sheep, goats, pigs and llamas.

The horse barn was closed for the day pretty much due to the fact that it was a horse team competition and it takes forever to prep for those shows. At the middle of the day we grabbed some ice cream and settled in to watch the horse show. My mom and I managed to randomly pick the top 2 finishers even though we had absolutely no idea what the judging criteria was.

We also wandered around the midway for a bit. I almost won a game of bouncy ball bingo or whatever it’s called. Tossing balls into an area with a grid. I managed to get 4 balls in a row but then somebody won. Boo. I also spent about $2 on a game where you had to roll a bowling ball down a track and get it to stop at a certain point. I was so close but didn’t manage to win.

As far as food goes, I mostly avoided eating stuff that was TOO bad for me. Specifically I didn’t get anything fried. Mostly because I had some cheesecake on a stick… I had some cotton candy too. My first bit of cotton candy ever. It was a bit weird but tasty.

We had planned on eating dinner there (at the awesome sausage place that sets up shop every year) but by the time that came around we were tired and hot and just wanted some quiet, so we left early and went to Tully’s for dinner.

It was a fun time this year. Very glad I was able to go to the fair and also glad to spend some time with my Mom. My fractured foot held up pretty good. It was my knees that were killing me by the end of the day. I’m becoming an old man. I even have a streak of grey hair now

Family Reunion Wrapup

Jason — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:57:16 +0000

Back of the Gorge

Owwwwwww. I’m extremely sore today. As in…I’m limping around the apartment and planning my day out so that I take the fewest number of trips up and down stairs as possible. Yesterday was the family reunion for my mom’s side of the family up at Whetstone Gulf state park and I had a really fun time.

After many changes of plans, we decided that I would head up really early to pick up my Mom so that we could go hiking in the morning around the rim of the gorge, about a 5 mile trail filled with lots of hills and a near constant cliff face off to one side. I planned on waking up at 5:30 so I could get ready to go, but I ended up gettig up just before 5 at which point I decided was close enough. So I got up and got ready and headed out to pick up my mom.

We arrived at Whetstone around 8ish and pulled into my aunt Stacy and Uncle Mike’s campsite. The family was occupying 3 campsites right next to each other, my uncle Dan and his (large) family in one and my Aunt Bette and her family in another one.

Walking Stick

We tried to get my uncle to walk the gorge trail with us, but he just laughed. More trail for us then! There’s two ways you can start the trail, the north side and the south side. The north side of the trail has a much steeper climb starting out, but it’s a lot shorter as far as sustained climbing goes. The south side contains the lookout tower and has a much longer, gradual climb to it. My mom decided that we’d start out on the north side because it had one big hill but then “was level”. HAH! It was true that it was level…for a while. We managed to get up the incline and started walking on a more level trail. My mom picked up a walking stick at this point.

Trust me...it's a hill.

The walking stick turned out to be a pretty good idea because no sooner had we rounded the next corner then we were brought face to face with a climb even steeper than the one we had just walked up. At points I was crawling up on my hands and knees. It was decided that we should find a walking stick for me at this point as well. After that there was a lot of flat walking. Except there wasn’t. Lots of hills! We brought along a couple bottles of water and some peanuts to much on, but we probably should have brought a couple more bottles of water looking back on it. We had to conserve a bit on the trip.

The Creek From Above

There’s some really neat scenery up on the gorge trail, and I don’t have room to put all the pictures here, so you should check my flickr account for more details. A bunch of the other family members were walking up the gorge floor and at one point, we think we hard them yelling out for us. We yelled back, but I don’t think anybody heard us.

We had fun for about 75% of the trip, but it stopped being fun the quarter…It was just a little too long. We were debating on if we wanted to hit the lookout point or not and we eventually decided to just go for it since we came all that way.

Lookout Tower

The lookout tower was located at the end of a very large dip in the trail, along with another big hill to climb, but we struggled up to get there anyway. The view was pretty nice, but I was hoping for more of a look down into the gorge. e did see some cool views of the surrounding country side though. We ate the rest of our food and headed back to start the trip down. That trip took the longer than expected. Going down really kills your knees, especially after having walked that long. to begin with.

The entire trip took us about 4 hours total to do. Not sure if I’ll be doing that again entirely, but I think it could be fun to do bits and pieces of it.

By the time we got back to the campsite, it was lunchtime and the rest of the family had pretty much arrived. Some grilled hot dogs and macaroni salad were on the menu. We were waiting for the group who were walking up the creek to return and for my grandparents to get there, but when the creek walkers came back we discovered that one of the kids had taken a pretty hard fall. After looking at it, they decided to take him to the nearest hospital’s ER to get it looked at. My grandparents waited to hear word from them before coming, so there was some downtime while we waited.

Dog Scooter

A group of us decided to cool off by heading to the swimming area and taking a short dip. The water was freaking cold, as per usual although I forgot exactly how cold it was since I had last gone there. It was a refreshing little swim, first time I had gone swimming in quite a while. Eventually, my grandparents arrived and we headed back to the campsites. It was one of my younger cousins birthdays so we had a little birthday party thing for him with everyone there.

My dad brought the dog up when he came around Noon and after a lot of running around, the dog got quickly tired out and spent the remainder of the day laying in my dad’s lap. Or, as the picture shows, getting driven around on a scooter.

Cooking Sweet Corn

One neat thing that should be mentioned is that my uncle Mike had a binder filled with handwritten pages. Apparently, my family has been having get-togethers at Whetsone Gulf since the 1930s. They had taken meeting minutes, with all the information like who was there at the reunion, who traveled the farthest, births and weddings during the year. It was really neat reading back through that stuff. Of course, we made an entry for the current gathering listing everybody who was there and everything.

The cousin who fell had returned with his arm in a sling just before dinner. It had gotten broken, but not terribly badly. Dinner went along well, with the traditional burgers, hot dogs and more macaroni salad. There was also some shrimp-kabobs that were grilled up by one of my uncles. Not to mention 40 ears of sweet corn (one of my cousins (Adam) decided that he wanted to have his with ketchup). All and all, a very good camping type dinner.

I stayed until around 9:00, eating peanuts by the fire and listening to my uncle and one of my cousins play banjo/guitar together. At one point a group of people pulled into the camp site next to us and we started taking bets on how long it would be before they decided that they wanted a different site.

I had a lot of fun and I probably left a lot of stuff out since so much happened. I’m hoping we do this again next year. It was cool heading up to the old campgrounds again with my family and just sitting around the camp fire hanging out and talking. Of course, like I mentioned, I can’t move now. But…it was entirely worth it.

Campfire At Night