Happy New Year to everyone!

Here, we had my son's friends over for an all night, teenager party. Little sleep was had and much caffeine was consumed. There was also the request for a shop vac at 12:30am after the Silly String got everywhere. They're good kids and vac'ed up their own mess.

The big project for New Years Day is repacking all the Christmas stuff. There have been several large boxes that are carted in and out of the garage every year and dug through for the new things we use. It is finally time to sort through them all, keep what we should be keeping and repack everything into new Christmas themed tubs from Lowes.

Tonight is Family Fun Night so you'll see us playing some game on LivingroomCam.

Hope everyone has a great new year.

Mary is crying again. What could possibly be causing the Mother of Man to cry?

A little thought will bring you to something that you can do to make the world better.

Every Thanksgiving, people rave about my mashed potatoes and "could you please make them again this year?".

Well, I know my mashed potatoes are not THAT good. It's like there is a thing that mothers and wifes do so "the dad" can feel like an important part of the dinner preparations. The dad has a "special dish" that they are known for and all the ladies support his fragile male ego my asking for the special preparation. It could be BBQ'ing. It could be pecan pie. It could be mashed potatoes. Should I be taken in my this ruse?

I've come to feel that it's like believing in Santa Claus: in your logical brain you know the truth, but believing makes the world a better place. So, I accept the accolades and mash the potatoes. And my ego is better for it.

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The evening before Thanksgiving dinner means peeling potatoes. At least for me. Somehow I am the "mashed potato expert" who has the job of bringing pounds of mashed potatoes to the family gathering.

One of the potatoes in the 20 pound bag (how does a 20 pound bag of potatoes cost less than a latte?) was wet. I thought that was a bit odd since the bag has been sitting on a dry porch. Peeling the potato revealed that it had no center -- just a home for white grubs chewing away.

Needless to say, that potato did not make it into the mashed potatoes.

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Last night we went to Ice Cream Rennaissance up in Vancouver, Washington. It's not a chain, the owner is there to help you and it's linked into the community with local artists on the wall and local musicians playing in the background. This is one of those small businesses that increasing rent drives out.

And the ice cream is wonderful. It's not just that the ice cream is made there. The presentation is something you won't find anywhere else. I had the "Dr. Chocolate" which was a scoop of milk chocolate ice cream and a scoop of dark chocolate ice cream both rolled in cocoa and sitting in a perfect amount of fudge and chocolate chips. Heaven for a chocolate lover and a proper mixture of flavors. The other servings were also not just scoops if ice cream in a bowl.

I recommend the place whenever you're in the area. They are open late nearly every evening, too. We were there at 9pm on a Sunday evening.