Jim's Montage

Auntie's cake!

Tis the season...

Tis the season...

Jim is horrible at keeping this thing updated, so it's time for the wife to take over!

Sunday, we cut down our Christmas tree. And it was much more involved than going to the tree farm. This year we adventured into the National Forest with our $10 tree permit to retrieve our holiday icon. With our friends Jake, Leslie, and Grace, we headed to the eastern Tinkham Road exit off I-90. There was plenty of snow, and Elena loved pointing it out (as if we couldn't see it ourselves). As we were driving, we saw some cool trees that were bent over from the weight of the snow creating an arch. What a great photo! But, oh! The camera batteries are dead! Having had dead batteries before we left home, I changed the batteries with new ones from the bag labeled CHARGED. Silly me should have verified the batteries were actually going to work... Or at least brought another set since this ALWAYS happens to me. Sheesh! So we're in the snowy winter wonderland with nothing but a camera phone.

Jim had hoped to have the Unimog available for our excursion, but only managed the new mirrors, and without wipers, the Unimog was not going. The guys chained up before the road started to incline, and we had no problems. At the end of the road (or as far as the plow had got) there was something of a tailgate party. Jim was irked because these people were up partying and taking up a good amount of the parking. It's prime tree cut time people! Party after Christmas or on a weekday (here's a toast to weekday partiers!)

End of story - we got our tree, it's great, but sitting in the driveway (hint hint Jim!)

Batman "2" details...

So it looks like the "second" Batman is in the works. I'm liking the details, and I'm certainly looking forward to it. This is one of the few movies that will entice me enough to visit a theatre.

This kinda brings up a good topic though, I wonder if the directors/writers/actors of the original movie series feel like they've been slapped in the face. Obviously the story in Batman Begins had not been addressed in that series, but now they're going into the story surrounding the Joker. I quite enjoyed the original Batman and Batman Returns (coincidentally directed by one of my favorites). We'll just have to wait and see...

Happy SysAdminDay!

For some reason I continue to forget all about this day, however its inevitable that some news site will remind me. Today is System Administrator Appreciation Day!

Be sure and give a special thanks to your SysAdmin. Typically we are made readily aware of things that are not working - however I have yet to hear someone call me up and say, "Jim, everything is working great. Keep up the good work!" ;-)

The Unimog hits Reiter Trails...

Back on 7/15/2006 I took a little road trip to Reiter Trails in the Unimog for the FJ Cruisers Trail Teams event (hosted by WATTORA). Overall it was a good time, I had a chance to get a good look at the new FJ Cruisers. They sure are pretty, and all those fancy amenities would be nice. However, I think I'll stick to the Mog as my project 4-wheeler. :-D

I was a little leery about driving so far in the Mog, as it is a 56 year old beast. It did quite well on the road, I topped off at about 55MPH and was able to keep close to that as much as possible. Ear plugs are an absolute necessity!

Below are some pics of the Mog in action. As usual I neglected to pull out my camera and snap pics, that is something I am working to change. A new acquaintance was gracious enough to snap some pictures and send them my way (thanks Mike!).