Archive for the 'Fun Stuff' Category

2011 Christmas Gift Exchange

Published on October 24, 2011 in Fun Stuff and Holidays. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

At the request of several people, the drawing was done early this year. Last year, the drawing took place November 6, and today is October 24, so we’re about 2 weeks early…

The drawing of the names has been done, and the results are below. I believe that no one is buying for anyone that they’ve bought for in the last 5 years or more.

  • Alisa buys for Nanny
  • Andrea buys for Dad
  • Brianna buys for Jason
  • Dad buys for Lisa
  • Graham buys for Brianna
  • Jason buys for Andrea
  • Julia buys for Mom
  • Lisa buys for Julia
  • Mom buys for Graham
  • Nanny buys for Ron
  • Ron buys for Alisa

Note: Please look it over and let me know if there are any mistakes. We don’t want people buying for each other as part of the gift exchange. We also don’t want spouses buying for each other as part of the gift exchange.

Here are some guidelines:

  • As far as I know, we will continue with the $50 amount. There is no rule about spending exactly $50 to the penny, and no rule about whether it is $50 including tax or $50 plus tax. Just get something nice for the person that is close to $50.
  • Try not to get a gift card for the person (or give cash, or equivalent) unless that is what they specifically ask for
  • It would be good if people could provide a list (more than just a couple of items) to the person who is buying for them. That way the person receiving will be getting something they want, but if the list is long enough, they won’t know which it is.

I assume we’ll be hosting the traditional Christmas Eve party at our house again.

March 2011 Trip to Florida – Day 12 (Thursday)

Published on March 18, 2011 in Children, Fun Stuff and Vacations. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

Thursday we headed off early to Aquatica with Grandma and Grandpa.

We were at the park by 10 am, so it still wasn’t that warm outside, but the water was nice, so it was fine.

The waterproof camera we borrowed from Andrea came in handy again.

We didn’t go anything new, just the same stuff as the other day. We played in the wave pool, went along the lazy river (Loggerhead Lane), floated around in Roa’s Rapids, and played in the Walkabout Waters area. Christine found a very small waterslide that she loved and she must have gone down it 50 or more times.

Considering that the park is by SeaWorld, there is a surprising lack of animals/birds/fish in the park. I figured that somehow they would have integrated them more. There are a few Macaw, a large aquarium you see as part of the Loggerhead Lane lazy river, as well as some Commerson’s dolphins that you can see in Loggerhead Lane as well as from one of the water slides. They are black and white, kind of like Orca whales, and they often swim upside down (as you can see in the picture). Apparently that is so they can see prey above them.

You can also see the dolphins from an underwater viewing area. Unfortunately none were swimming by when the picture was taken.

As mentioned before, Grandma and Grandpa did come out with us yesterday and today. Grandma isn’t 100%, but she is getting better.

We got back home around 1:30 and had lunch and then relaxed at the house. We had breakfast for dinner, and then the kids had a bath. They were almost in bed on time, and then Lisa and I went out to go to a few stores.

Friday is our last full day in Florida. We are going to go mini-putting again in the morning, and do some shopping. We’ll then go out for dinner and head out to Downtown Disney one last time.

A sad time…

Published on June 19, 2010 in Fun Stuff. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Many years ago whenever Lisa wanted to do something boring, I would say to Andrea and Brianna, “I wish I were mini-putting”. They ended up getting me a custom made t-shirt with that phrase on it. You’ve seen it many, many times, I’m sure.

Unfortunately, the shirt just got too thin and started to rip around the letters. I had to throw it out :-( Good-bye old friend!

On another sad note, last night Lisa and I watched the movie 2012 last night. If you haven’t seen it, DON”T!!! You’ll never get that two and a half hours back…

Have you seen Avatar?

Published on April 30, 2010 in Fun Stuff. 1 Comment Tags: .

I have, but don’t remember these strange creatures…

What’s for dinner?

Published on February 17, 2009 in Fun Stuff. 1 Comment Tags: .

:-)

The young couple invited their elderly pastor for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having.

“Goat,” the little boy replied.

“Goat?” replied the startled man of the cloth. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yep,” said the youngster. “I heard Dad say to Mom, ‘Today is just as good as any to have the old goat for dinner.’”

What is Lisa buying for my daughter?!

Published on October 11, 2008 in Children and Fun Stuff. 0 Comments

(if you really want to know, it was a Christmas dress… we assume the “ho” was the beginning of holiday)

How many of me?

Published on September 16, 2008 in Fun Stuff. 3 Comments Tags: .

I know, I’m unique… there is only one of me. But does anyone else share my name? HowManyOfMe.com apparently has a database of all of the names in the United States (using Census data). You put in your first name and last name and it tells you if anyone else has your name. According to the site, there are 18,309 Graham’s in the US and 16,143 Wing’s but there is only 1 Graham Wing (I presume that is me, since I filled out the form, even though I don’t live in the US). There are however 57 Lisa Wing’s (1,074,156 have the name Lisa).

Celebrity Look-alike

Published on August 16, 2008 in Fun Stuff. 2 Comments

MyHeritage has a neat tool that lets you see who you look like. Here are the results for Lisa and I. Apparently I look most like Kanye West and Lisa looks most like Jennifer Connelly.

You can build your own collage on the MyHeritage site…

Jeff’s new vanity license plate

Published on August 11, 2008 in Fun Stuff. 1 Comment

It commemorates the Blue Jays winning the World Series in 1992 and 1993.

Note: Click on the image to see a much larger version.

Classic Nintendo (NES) games online

Published on January 29, 2008 in Fun Stuff. 0 Comments

I’ve only ever owned one video game console system and that was the original Nintendo (NES) system. I didn’t have very many games, but I loved playing Tetris, Dr. Mario, and Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out. Several years ago I learned about emulators. I’m not sure exactly how this works, but essentially emulators are software that duplicates the game environment so it can be played in Windows.

I had forgotten about emulators until the other day when I was looking for a game online. I was expecting to find a Flash version of the game, but came across an emulator from NESCafe Web. As I looked into this further, there are loads of games now available online. They use Java to power them and they are exactly the same as the originals. Very cool!

To find a game, I’d suggest searching for the name of the game and NEScafe (for instance, searching for Tetris would require you to search for “tetris NEScafe” without the quotes).

If you are interested, here are the links I found to my favourite games: