Bah, Humbug!
Thanksgiving came and went, which is nice because things were getting a little hectic. Overall it went well, my contribution was a Rhubarb + Custard pie, which everyone liked - odd considering everyone who tried the stewed rhubarb that went in it despised it.
We're doing something crazy tomorrow, waking up early and hitting up a couple of stores for Black Friday. I'm not going to be kicking down any old ladies to make off with the box of bookshelves they grabbed or anything, but there's a couple of things on sale that we'll try to see if we can score for a steal. If nothing else I'm sure it'll be an experience.
We're "about half way" done with Christmas shopping, which is good because we're rapidly running out of money. Things aren't desperate yet, but there was a few things I personally wanted to get and we didn't run out and grab them and I don't like that feeling. 
I have absolutely no idea what my wife's getting me, but she insists it's good. I think this year is gonna be great, despite the fact we haven't even set up the trees or anything (yeah, we have two trees). I won't setup the outside decorations until we get snow that sticks. We decorate the small, mangled pine outside as well as put up a couple of snowmen because my wife has a snowman fetish, but outdoor snowmen look silly if there's no snow around for them to sit in.
Looking forward to the New Year though, to get all of this holiday madness over with and get the majority of winter behind us.
Winter Photography
We had our first "snow" today. It's not going to stick on the ground, but it came down, a sure indicator that winter's well on it's way. The weather this year has been really strange here, with the way things were acting in October I really thought we were going to have an early winter, but for all the show, mother nature's been really easy on us so far.
I went back and edited my christmas list, because I realised I neglected to put a camera tripod on there. Photography is something of a hobby of mine - sort of, but not really. I mean I enjoy it, I'm just not particularly good at it and I don't really do it enough to call it a hobby I suppose. Probably more of an "interest" I guess?
We've been through three digital cameras so far, each one better than the last, and the last one was actually brand new. You can see from browsing my flickr that I'm not fantastic at it but I've definitely been getting better.
One of the things I would like to do this winter is get out and take some really dramatic shots of the woods when there's snow all over. I've seen some people take fantastic shots and doing weird things with the composition and truthfully I have no idea how to do any of it - but I'm hoping to learn. I just need to find the motivation to get out and actually take some photos when it's about 10F out. 
My Christmas Wish List
My darling wife Sabriena is absolutely sick of hearing about the things I "want" for Christmas, but I thought I'd list a few things here anyway, for my family's reference.
Up to about a week ago, the number one thing I wanted this Christmas was a Playstation 3. I'm a Sony fanboy - though not rabid, I can actually see the flaws in their systems, it just happens that I favor them more than the competitors.. speaking of which my wife, when she gets mad at me, often threatens to buy me an Xbox 360 for Christmas, citing the lower price and "I thought you said you wanted one."
Anyway, that changed recently, when one of the lower items on my list, Left4Dead, was released in demo form, and I learned that my computer won't play it.
So now I've decided to strip anything above about $20 off my list, people can buy me these things if they wish, and then I'll wait patiently until after christmas and build a new PC. Maybe.
Some of the smaller things I would like?
A Nokia CA-42 data cable, so I can put ringtones on my crappy little cell phone.
A Karambit Knife, something cheap but not too cheap (the Smith + Wesson hindged variety look pretty nice).
I would love a camera tripod. Anything cheap, I don't even care if it's not full height (but that would be nice) as long as it keeps the camera stable.
A 4GB+ Memory Stick Pro Duo, because it would be nice to actually use my PSP as an MP3 player, since I can't really afford games for it... unless...
You want to buy me a PSP game! I don't want much, pretty well anything will keep me occupied for a little while, so something cheap like HotShots Golf, the Madden games, Ape Escape, Death Jr or SOCOM (*squeals*) all of which can be had for around five bucks.
Finally, though I can't seem to find them on eBay... I would greatly appreciate a few extra MSP 430 Target boards, for the MSP430EZ kit. They're cheap too, if you're looking at something that's above about $15 for three of them you're looking at the wrong thing. I don't even know why I mentioned this because probably none of my family members will know where to buy them from.
