Possumblog

I had a hunch the Iron Bowl would cause a post to be squeezed out. Gotta link for your cheapo car stereo from BB? A 4 GB drive for under $20 is exceptionally cheap (and I'm jealous!).

And yes, the Spuds had a fine Thanksgiving too. We seated just nine this year, so no need for a separate kid's table. Kristal was afraid she had over-cooked the pumpkin pies, but they turned out just fine.

Do you have many vacation days left to "redeem" before the end of the year, or even if you did are you too busy with the new job to take them? I had a few left over, but I found out last weekend that my mom is coming to visit in about a week, so that should burn the rest of them.

Sorry, Marc--I thought I'd posted something about the radio. Silly me--it's a Dual Somethingorother XL Jiminy Christmas 8700. I finally got tired of trying to wrangle the crappy portable radio around the car and still not be able to hear anything on it. It was 70 bucks plus 50 for install, which I suppose is okay. The install guy was a real treat--he was going to try to make me come back another day. Kept saying he had a 3:00 o'clock appointment, but I told him I didn't care. Oddly enough, no one else ever showed up.

Took him about an hour, after which he started grilling some hamburgers at the back door. Not quite sure when he thought he was going to call me, but I had been going back and forth to check on him and make sure he was working. Do you ever watch “Chuck” on Monday nights? They got Best Buy pegged. The kids were with me, and were quite embarrassing as they looked at guys and matched them up with the guys on the show. Including the Asian guy. (Except ours wasn’t bald.)

Sadly, there is no hot blonde spy. Or hot brunette sister-of-Chuck. Or hot brunette deli owner.

As for the flash drive, it's a SanDisk Cruzer (aka "Mr. Cheesy McStupidname") with MS Ready-something and U3, which is some sort of computer thing that's even better than Irish rock supergroup U2, since it's not covered in razor stubble and sanctimony. Staples had them on Friday morning only, and it was the result of an instant rebate then another 10 buck "easy" rebate that they'll mail me. Otherwise, it would have been $80.

Vacation days? You betcha. Gonna try and take off the three days after Christmas.

The stereo seems "sweet". Be sure to get the right woofer for your Svedish trunk when you go back to Best Buy for your speaker upgrade (just kidding!). There's something about a thumb-drive sticking out of the car stereo USB port, being able to play about 500 songs, that I find oddly appealing. It helps having the kids along and regaling them with tales of how it was considered cool to have an 8-track player in your car back when you were their age. Their eye-rolls are good for a chuckle too. I almost miss hearing the "cha-chunk" sound in the middle of a song from those 8-track tapes.

(I don't watch "Chuck" on Mondays, or "Heroes" for that matter either.)

I still have my 8-track box (that is, my box full of old 8-tracks), although sadly nothing to play them on. I do have something of a simulacrum, though. Back when I was in college, I had a friend who had a gigantic console television that also had a turntable, cassette player/recorder, and 8-track player all in one. I converted all my 8-tracks to cassette, and they all have their appropriate moments of silence dutifully recorded.

Now I need to see about converting those old cassettes to mp3...

8 tracks, BAH! I'm still pining for the fiords... nope I don't, just tuned in on a wandering Norski moment. Anywho lots of my LP's have never made it to CD or other digital frewfraw so I'm still playing them. Still sound durn good too.

Hey, I'll go you one better--I've got some old wax 78s from the late '40s that were squirrelled away in the old Admiral radio/record player that belonged to Reba's aunt.

HEY! I'm glad you like Chuck too, Terry. We think it is a great show--perhaps the freshest and relatively clean show on network primetime TV this fall. There is a lot of stuff that comes on that I don't think is worth watching, but Chuck so far has not been something I would absolutely forbid a child to watch. And they sure do have "Best Buy" pegged, although I'm debating with my inner self: is Chuck really nothing but an insidiously-designed "Best Buy" commercial???

It does have some dark moments, but personally I think it's better than most of the crap out there.

As for Best Buy, I notice that they DO advertise on there...