My Christmas Loot December 26, 2011
Posted by Mitchell in Home, Knitting, Leather.comments closed
This year we all agreed that we all have a lot of stuff and we don’t need a lot more stuff so we were going to back off giving a lot of stuff. That said, I still got a fair amount of stuff. Here’s the run down of the minor stuff: some little kitchen tools, a nifty little book on 50 ways to make deviled eggs (I’ll post some of the more interesting ones), a pair of fleece-lined slippers (very comfy), a great little credit card/money clip thingy for when I don’t want a big wallet. Those were the “stocking stuffers”. On to the Main Features:
Cool huh? I LOVE these buckyballs! I’ve been playing with them ever since I got home yesterday. In fact I went online and ordered three full sets in silver, gold and black. If you buy two sets from Thinkgeek they’ll throw in the blue sidekick set for free.
Then there’s the Big Gift. They weren’t supposed to do a Big Gift this year since they gave me the Kimber 1911 last year for this year’s Big Gift, but they did it anyway with the really cool leather knitting basket from Renaissance Art. Yeah, I know Mr. Art ticked me off earlier this year, but I shall forgive him; this thing is beyond awesome. Finely crafted leather goods covers a lot of sins. 😀
So how did y’all do?
Merry Christmas! December 26, 2011
Posted by Mitchell in Home.comments closed
Yeah, sorry this is WAY late and the day is almost over. I was over at the Parental Units for most of the day and away from the thinking machine.
I hope everyone got what they wanted, or at least what they deserved. 😉 I had to pull back a bit on the presents this year due to the increased expenses of the new housing arrangement. Appypollylogies for not getting at least Christmas cards out to you droogs who would rightly come to expect one. I flaked out and sucked donkey dingles this year*.
All-in-all everything went very well. My sister loved the book I sent, Mom loved the Swarovski crystal flower (after insisting that I paid too much and must return it and oooh I have the perfect place for it!), and Dad greatly appreciated the 18 year old bottle of Dewar’s scotch. There are much more expensive single malts that I could have bought but he’s really not a fan of single malts. Dad loves him some Dewar’s. Dunno how my brother likes his Pro Bass Shop gift cards as he hasn’t bothered to check his PO box this week, but I’m sure he can make good use of it. Oh, and the two big gifts of the Dom champagne and Peter Lik photographs went over GREAT! I wasn’t worried about the champagne of course, but I wasn’t exactly sure about photographs. I thought they had enough of the Cotterill frogs and were ready to move onto something else. And sure enough they are! This was the first frogless Christmas in..12 – 13 years maybe? We’re gonna hit one of the galleries in a couple weeks so they can get eyeful of what this guy is REALLY capable of.
Christmas Cheer December 18, 2011
Posted by Mitchell in Art, Yorling.comments closed
An extended remix of the classic is available this year! Enjoy!
Christmas yorling is nearly done. I guess. I’m having a real tough time finding something for the Paternal & Fraternal Units. I got two presents for the Parental Units collectively: a bottle of Dom Perignon and Peter Lik’s “Elements”. Lik is selling a new “foot in the door” package of four Element pictures in a box at a fairly reasonable price starting this Christmas season. Peter Lik is an phenomenal photographer from Australia and his stuff is simply stunning. And he manages to keep TWO galleries up and running at the Forum shops!
The Maternal Unit is getting some Shang Tea and a Swarovski crystal flower.
The Sister Unit is getting a book of this guy’s artwork: Vladimir Kush. She saw his stuff in a gallery the last time she was out here and really liked it, so hopefully she will like the book. I’ll probably wind up sending the Brother Unit a gift card to Pro Bass Shops.
I would really like some help for ideas to get something for Dear Old Dad though. I’m running out of time. $250 price range.
Apocalypse…Soon? December 9, 2011
Posted by Mitchell in Bad Times Ahead.comments closed
I read this article last night with open-mouthed horror: Zero Hedge It’s lengthy, but well worth your time to read it all. But, thumbnail version: Eurozone financial institutions are far more heavily over-leveraged than is being generally reported. What’s worse is that many U.S. banks are dangerously exposed to it through their foreign subsidiaries set up in the U.K. Bank wipe-outs in Europe could wipe out our bank accounts too.
The Eurozone is going to collapse. I honestly don’t think there’s anything anybody can do to stop it. While I knew things were bad, I had no idea they were this bad.
Oh my God
We are going to have to learn how to live in a much more difficult, dangerous, and poorer world. Many of us will not be able to do so.
*Update* I got all my money out of Bank of America (which is straight up involved in all this through their Banc of America foreign subsidiary) a couple years ago because of my growing alarm with what they were doing and into a much smaller, local bank. Still, I have grave concerns because it’s impossible to tell who is exposed and who isn’t due to the interconnectedness of all these institutions. <-Check that link out. Be sure to scroll down! I’m going to start drawing down my savings account and leaving less in the checking account. It’s not like I’m earning any real interest on it and when the balloon goes up a lot of people are going to suddenly find themselves locked out of their accounts entirely or only able to withdraw little amounts per day. Protect yourselves. And buy real physical gold if you can, or silver if you can’t. I buy from the American Precious Metal Exchange.
The Center of the Anomaly 