2009 Christmas Decorations

After having nice Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it's time to put up our Christmas decorations.  We spent the morning/early afternoon putting up lights around the house. 
Then we took a break to watch the FSU @ UF game.  It was Tim Tebow's final game at the Swamp.  UF won 37-10.
In the evening we put up a Christmas tree in the living room and filled it with ornaments.

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2009 Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! 

This year, like many years, I have a lot to be thankful for.  I have a great wife.  My family is safe and healthy.  I have an awesome job/work place.  God's given me many things.  I am thankful and content.

This weekend, Jessica and I went up to Jacksonville to spend Thanksgiving with her family.  We had fried turkey, green beans casserole, mashed potatoes, squash, and oysters stuffings.  Very tasty!
We also watched Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The National Dog Show, and some football.  Overall it was very relaxing and enjoyable.

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2009 UF v FIU

Jessica and I got tickets from our friends Neko and Olivia for the UF-FIU game.  We drove down from Jacksonville to Gainesville in the morning and met up at Nathan and Monica's place.  They had this cool armor piece in the living room.  (Last night Nathan successfully defended his dissertation.  He is now Doctor VanderKraats!  Congratulation!)

Dmitriy came over and we went to get some food then drove over to Ami and Jeremy's house across the street from the stadium.  They were kind enough to let us (and a lot of people) park on their lawn for the game.

We got to our seats a little before the end of the first quarter.  UF was already up by 14 points and Tebow had a 55 rushing TD.  The game was a blow out, but it was good to finally see some offensive fireworks.  Towards the end of the game, I met up with Grant and his wife (forgot to take a picture).  After the game, we went down by the side line, trying hi-five Tebow.  We didn't quite make it, but did get close enough for a video.  

After the game, Jessica and I went over to see Olivia.  Then we had dinner at Buddha Belly and drove back to Jacksonville.

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I-10 Construction During Rush Hour??

2009.11.21
We drove back from Gainesville to Jacksonville tonight, around 9pm.  What a surprise, no construction was happening!

Original Post
My wife and I drove up from Tampa to Jacksonville for the weekend.  We usually take I-275 to I-75 to 301 to I-10.  Today's trip went pretty well.  There were a good number of cars, but the traffic was moving well... until we hit I-10.
We got on I-10 around 6pm, before we hit stop-and-go traffic.  After 30 minuites going about 3 mph, we saw some signs indicating left lane ends, merge right.  When we got to the bottleneck, we saw this huge construction vehicle/structure/thing that was in the median, but close enough to the road to block off the left lane (this section of I-10 Eastbound is a two-lane road, so with the construction, all the traffic got squeezed down to one lane).
Why they didn't place the structure in the middle of the wide area between I-10 Westbound and I-10 Eastbound, I'm not sure.  They probably had a good reason for it.  But why they decided to work during rush hour is just plain sucky.
It took us about 45 minutes to get passed the construction (normally it would take about 10 minutes).  So we made it to Jacksonville about 30 minutes late.  Not too bad.

2009 Pre-Trip - Cruise

My wife and I are taking some time off for the holidays and going on a cruise.  After some searching, we decided on the Norwegian Cruise Line.  I'll post up pictures and some write ups after the trip.  For now, I'm just going to post up our pre-trip stuff.
We bought an opaque waterproof bag (Kwik Tek Dry Pack) to store our valuables such as wallet and IDs, a clear waterproof pouch (Lewis N. Clark Waterproof Multi Purpose pouch) to keep my camera dry (as a cheap alternative to a waterproof case), and a pair of acupressure wrist bands (Psi Bands) to help with my seasickness. 
We tested the waterproof items in the bathroom sink.  We stuffed the bags with tissues, closed them up according to the instructions, and submerged them one at a time.  The results were good.  The tissues were mostly dry.  The only water that got on them were from the edges of the bags when we took the tissues out.
I will post up more reviews when we get back from the cruise, after the items have been used in real situations.

Car Payment

An interesting advice on money by Dave Ramsey:

http://www.daveramsey.com/etc/lms/drive_free/player.cfm

New Tires - HTR-Z III

The rear tires on my S2000 were going bald.  After doing some research online, I decided to go with the Sumitomo HTR-Z III (245/40ZR17).  I bought it off of TireRack.com (via Jim@tirerack) on 2009.11.04.  Had them shipped to my office.  They arrived the very next day!  It was pretty fast.  Total cost was a little less than $240, including shipping.

After work, I had them installed at Tires Plus on the way home.  I put one in the trunk and one in the passenger seat. It only took about 30 minutes and I was off driving the car like it was meant to be driven.

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