Christmas! I took a kewl photo of the tree from below, although I've converted it to black and white because it was ugly low-light red in color.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

yes that's me

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

Our roast required many thermometers to assure proper cooking. This was for 18 people

[480x640] [600x800] [768x1024] [1200x1600]

It snowed. I took a whole bunch of different versions of this photo with varying amounts of exposure etc. The exif tags say: f/8.0, exposure 5 sec, no gain. My three stuck pixels have been gimped out of the image. They get quite big with long exposures

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

This has to be the fucking funniest rice car I have ever seen. Sure, it's a good ol' honda civic. Check. Second, it's got an ugly neon yellow color. Check. Bad-ass (not pictured) ear-pierced asian dude driver? check. Low-rider imitating cheap plastic extensions? Natch! And, of course, the giant tailpipe. If this car had all of these things, it still wouldn't be so funny.

Worse than the completely unoriginal additions on this car are the unique touches that mark it as the shittiest of the shit. He has no hubcaps at all. Normally a car like this would have hubcaps with little knives poking out of them or something, but instead he chooses to reveal the ugly dark metal underneath. Maybe he hasn't had time to install the neon? Or maybe this owner ran out of money for the hubcaps at the same time he ran out of money to buy the whole spoiler. Now far be it from me to criticize someone else's choice in car accessories (oh gosh no), but I think if you're going to slap a vision-impairing hunk of metal on your car, you'd want to install the whole thing. I thought, as I saw the kid and his girlfriend turn in to the mall parking lot, that perhaps he should have asked daddy for another check before taking this thing public.

This is a timer shot of our new apartment. It's cheap, it's near cool things, and it's cheap. Did I mention...

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

From left to right: Owen/Char, Caley (future roommate), and Lisa (realtor)

So Char and I made use of my United frequent flyer miles (and not a moment too soon!) to go to Madison one more time. My friends are all still there finishing up extra semesters, so it was an opportunity not only to do my own little homecoming but also to be with my college friends again. In six months, one will still be there, another will be on the west coast, another somewhere else... It sucks.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

Char has friends of her own unpictured, but here are my friends. Alex doesn't like getting his picture taken, so you won't see him.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

Neat ice formation from a 4" square vent

We also went to Miluakee to see Char's mom and cat.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

Said mom

Char's mom (Carol) gave her a Christmas present: a pepper grinder. Char loves pepper, as depicted here:

[480x640] [600x800] [768x1024] [1200x1600]

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

The Cat, Mittens (aka Bing)

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

She's very old, this one. Dandruffy

[480x640] [600x800] [768x1024] [1200x1600]

Char and I played some Jenga at "Pochi Tea Station." They serve smoothies there.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

I can't believe people still think this is funny. It was funny in JANUARY 2000, PEOPLE!

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

No comment.

Why is it that some people... I dunno... can't write without elipses... it seems they don't know what a sentence is... they just use short phrases... it's so dumb... it makes me want to kill myself... the worst part is there are adults who do it... oh no I didn't include a photo in this update... looks like the only option is suicide...

When I was a kid we used to have a Snow Bet. The idea is you guess when it will snow, and if you're right you get a dinky prize of some sort. The way we did it was we printed out a bunch of calendars, then passed them around, marking off various weeks. If a storm began during your week, you might win. There was one prize for First Snow Over One Inch As Determined By Dad In The Back Yard, and another for Biggest Snow. The prize for first snow was a dinner of one's choice at home, and biggest snow gets you a dinner out anywhere you want.

Now that I'm back from college, we did another snow bet. Last week, Char's, it snowed four inches. I took lots and lots of pictures, but they are on film. So if I ever get off my butt and develop them, you might see them. For now, I give you a rice car:

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

I was in a rush and fucked up the settings twice, but there's enough information in the data to play with the curves and get something intelligible.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

My friend Henry (an avid reader!) made a snake head out of kneadable eraser. It's pretty neat.

[640x480] [800x600] [1024x768] [1600x1200]

As yet not quite done light setup