Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

My Christmas Eve was pretty cool.

Decorated house?

Check.

Presents under the tree?

Check!

Christmas Eclair made and ready to serve?

Check-er-roonie

Me looking adorable?

Check and Check!





Christmas Eve was fun. My brother, his wife, their puppy and my baby nephew came to visit. My other brother, his wife and baby were suppose to come as well... but first my brother came down with a bug, which passed to my other baby nephew, which passed to my sister-in-law. So instead of risking spreading it to everyone else... we just teleconferenced online.

It was a bummer they couldn't come, but it was cool to at least be able to talk to them and see my other nephew. on the plus side, they've recovered from their bug. And by the time they come up at the end of January, they'll be over the contagious stage of the bug.

Our tradition is to open our gifts on Christmas Eve... so that's what we did tonight. my mom desperately needed a new laptop, so that's what me and my brothers bought her. the brother that was able to make it up is big into Ghost hunting, so I bought him the official K-II meter used by professional ghost hunters in investigations... plus a book written by the hosts of the Syfy show "Ghost Hunters".

My sister-in-law got an imported Japanese Black Pearl necklace from me. She really liked it so I was happy.

I bought my nephew a slide and a twilight turtle... I bought the exact same thing for my other nephew, but he won't get them until my brother heads home taking my other brother's family's gifts home with him. I bought myself a twilight ladybug because they are so totally cute! lol

I got the very gift I wanted from my brothers and my mom...

Man I can't wait to get out and try this camera! I'm so excited. My brother's wife also saw this and thought of me. It's too cute. I've named him Ken-ichi

Of course the puppies weren't forgotten. I bought Dojo and Yoshi toys and my brother and his wife bought them cookies.

I bought my brother's dog a bunch of chews. After presents I had a dancing contest with my baby nephew (who just learned to walk)

naturally, my nephew won. Lol

It was a very nice Christmas Eve. My brother fell asleep watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and the rest of us also turned in early because we have church tomorrow at 10am.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! Talk to you soon!

Phantom of the Opera hidden object game

(Spoilers included)

I love those hidden object games... so when I found one with the Phantom of the Opera storyline, I thought, "Awesome!"

The game is from Big fish Games, and it takes place after Christine escapes from the Phantom's lair with Raoul. They since married and now have a daughter named Eveline (who I believe is about the age Christine was during the whole phantom time line.) though it's not specified.

She received a note that turns out to be written by the phantom, and she is dragged into the nightmarish Paris Opera house that is the Phantom's domain. And thus begins her story as she tries to escape from the Opera house and from the clutches of the Phantom (who at this time believes she is Christine returned to him)

To help her find her way out, the player encounters many hidden object search games, and various puzzles (such as turning the opera house lights on by fixing the fuses in a certain order. If you don't get the order right, you obviously have to try again.)

Through the game, you'll get entries for your journal that will give you clues to how a certain puzzle is solved. So pay close attention to your journal. If you really can't figure it out... you can hit the button below the hint mirror and it will tell you how to solve the puzzle, or where to find the next item needed to solve the puzzle.

The game is pretty fun. It's not too easy, but it's not so hard that it's impossible to finish. It is perfectly balanced.

The graphics are pretty good. The art work is beautiful. The Phantom looks totally cool. So much cooler than the typical half white mask guy in a tux.

However, despite how great everything was... the ending kind of ruined it. (spoiler here)

It ends with Eveline being kidnapped by the phantom. He now realizes who she is, and it's even better than if she were Christine, because she looks like Christine. So he has his muse... and his revenge on Christine and Raoul.

The end...

Thanks for playing.

There is a bonus game if you get the collector's edition... but that also does not resolve the story. As it stands, Christine's daughter is still trapped with the Phantom. And there is no word on if there will even be a sequel. It didn't end with "To be continued" it just ended with "thanks for playing".

That would suck.

The phantom was never unmasked... we don't know if Christine or Raoul go to rescue their daughter... we don't know if the daughter escapes.

I can't imagine that they wouldn't make a sequel... but if they don't, the ending kind of ruins the whole game. You invest so many hours, and then it doesn't actually end... that would suck.

So for the most part, game play was an A+ till the end.

if they plan on a sequel... the game gets an A+... if they don't plan a sequel, the ending gets an F which means the game drops from an A+ to a D+/D. which would be a shame.

My wish is that they would do a sequel, and possibly work on a prequel that takes place during the events of the original phantom storyline.

Check out the game

All in all though... if they complete this story with a sequel... it will be pretty awesome.

With some tweeking to this story to fit the ending of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, this would have been a better musical sequel then the current "Love Never Dies" fiasco. Just my opinion tho.

I got a really cool gift for Christmas

Christmas is not quite here, but I already got a pretty cool gift.

As most people know, I'm Catholic. For a long time I wasn't even a good Catholic. I'd miss mass frequently, mostly because I was too lazy to get up in the morning to go to church. When I did go, I use to leave early, right after the 'our father'.

So I'm trying to be a better Catholic... I volunteer now to do readings during mass, and on other weeks, sing. It's nice because I have an obligation to go and stay the whole mass, and I'm giving back to the church because the church needs readers and singers to donate their time to mass. So I'm trying to be a more faithful Catholic.

Well I decided to do a little more this year. Most Catholic churches have 'giving trees' every Christmas Season. For the first part of Advent... the giving tree is decorated with little cards that have the gender and age of children in need of gifts for Christmas... some will tell you what are being asked for... some just say by an age appropriate gift for x amount.

I took a card for a 15 year old girl (who I bought a panda bear jewel necklace for. It was $100 but I got it on sale.) and I got one for a baby 0-6 months (who I bought a night light projector for). Then you bring the gifts to the church and they distribute them as needed.

I felt pretty good doing something nice for kids who needed something special for Christmas. However, I didn't know just how much it meant to the people receiving the gifts until today.

The second half of advent when the gifts for children has ended, the tree is refilled with cards with the names of the elderly who are home bound or in nursing homes. They ask that you send a card with a special message for the person on the card... and that you mail it, or even better, hand deliver it.

I decided it was very close to Christmas and it may not make it in the mail on time so today I decided to deliver the card to the nursing home of the elderly lady's name I picked off the tree. I also decided since I was going in person, to bring some Christmas cookies I picked up at the bakery with me, and some Christmas chocolates.

When I got to the nursing home, the lady whose name I picked was sitting in a corner all by herself in her wheelchair, hunched over staring at her feet. She looked surprised when the nurse said I was there to see her, and even more surprised to see I had cookies and a card for her.

When she saw I was there to hand deliver a Christmas greeting just for her, you could see her eyes tearing up. She took my hand and thanked me. I told her the picture card was actually a picture of my puppies, Dojo and Yoshi, that I had turned into a Christmas card, and that I hoped it would make her smile. She seemed truly grateful to know that a complete stranger would do something like that for her.

As I was leaving she told me "God bless you", and then she had the nurse help her open the card and read it to her. It felt really good to do something for someone else, but to see their reaction and just how much it meant to them that someone would go out of their way for them... that felt even better.

The reason I posted this is not to say "hey look at what a good Christian I am." Its because of that feeling I got when I saw the look of surprise and happiness on her face. I wanted to share the story and encourage everyone to do something like that this Christmas season. It's not too late, there's still 5 days till Christmas Day, so there's plenty of time to do something nice for someone who needs it.

if you're not Catholic, perhaps a Catholic church will allow you to take a card from their giving tree if there are any left... or you could go to a nursing home and ask if there is anyone living there who especially could use a little Christmas cheer... then personally deliver a card or gift to them. Donate a toy to tots, or go to a local church and drop off toys and ask if they know of any children in the area in need of gifts for Christmas.

You'll make someone else very happy... but even more so, you will be surprised how great you'll feel inside.

Merry Christmas everyone

the 411 on my call to 911

Ok here's basically the 411 on my 911 call.

I was coming home from the grocery store... and there was this one car on this side street who wasn't even watching where he was going. He blew his stop sign and started making his turn, right into my car.

I started swerving to avoid getting hit, but the more I swerved the more he was running me off the road, like he couldn't see cherry red SUV sticking out like an inflamed Zit on the face of the white snow...

The ditch I was swerving into had a deep dip which would have caused my SUV to flip over and roll, so finally I laid on my horn and threw my hands up in a "WHAT THE HELL DUDE" gesture.

He gestured back with what looked like the one finger salute. I just drove in front of him and started heading for home like, 'whatever. idiot driver.'

Well I noticed that he followed me up the street, down a side street, up another street than down the main road. That didn't bug me too much cause lots of people take that way.

then he followed me up another side street. I still wasn't concerned, but It was starting to look less like a coincidence cause this wasn't a highly trafficked street. So then I decided to test it. I was going to drive up a side street, then back up another towards the main road I just turned off of, making a big square.

That's when I realized this guy was intentionally chasing me down. Now we didn't actually get into the accident because I kept swerving to avoid his erratic driving and eventually when I laid on the horn he stopped... so it wasn't like he needed to chase me down to exchange insurance information... and he was still driving erratically, so it wasn't a good situation to be in. I knew if I stopped to find out what he wanted, it wasn't going to end up good. So I kept driving trying to lose him.

then he started driving a little more intimidating, catching up to me, making every turn I made, revving his engine. Finally I had enough. After about 10+ minutes of him chasing me, and driving erratically... I decided to blow a stop sign myself, which he did as well, and I headed for a crowded parking lot. He saw me in the parking lot, turned around and took off, probably because there was lots of people and I could report him. (stupid me didn't have my cell on me or I'd have called the cops.)

I had no idea why he was chasing me. HE almost caused the accident by running the stop sign, and I was driving away, it was over. I don't know if he was drunk, if it was a case of road rage, if it was both... or if he got a good look in my car and saw that I was a young woman in the car alone. I don't know.

I never got a license plate cause he was behind me, and there was no front plate on his car. After he took off... I took a bunch of side streets to get home. By this time I was bawling and having a panic attack. I hid my car in the garage and ran to tell my mom what happened as calmly as someone crying hysterically can.

She told me to call the police. Even though I didn't know the plate #, I could describe the car type and color, and the fact that the middle aged male driver was the only occupant in the car. This way if he does this to someone else, they have my complaint on record.

The 9-11 operator told me several times I needed to calm down cause I was literally ready to crap my pants I was so scared. I'm calming down a little now... (I took some cough syrup that makes you a little drowsy, so it's kind of relaxing me.)

but I'm in a lot of pain. When he almost hit me, my body tensed up completely to brace for impact... and then when I realized he was chasing me, I got really tense... so now I feel like I have whiplash and the small of my back is so sore and occasionally I get these spasms in my back... I may go to the ER tomorrow and see if I can get a muscle relaxer if the back spasms don't calm down.

but yeah. that's what happened. I'm still shaken up, but I'm starting to calm down a bit more. So yeah... not a fun day.