Deer on truck

He appears to be eating one of those tiny trees. I wonder he he glows at night.

Sacramento capital tree

The phone isn't so great with night shots

New shirt

It's a 4t, for if he ever grows.

Sutter buttes at moonrise

Ultralight

Some lunatic was out flying around in the cold weather

The cloudy road

Going through the Shasta area.

Weathering the pass

We came back to California on sunday. Good thing too, as the weather got very nasty the next day.

Getting dark

It's only 4.15 and already getting dark. Good thing it's going to turn around soon, i'm tired of not seeing the sun.

New toy

Lee got him a race track. He played with it for 2 hours straight before i ripped him away.

On the next level

Meeting Joe's cat at the penthouse

Cat fishing

Taking a break

Shopping is hard work

Tunes

Drew enjoys some music while Amy enjoys an iphone.

The lego store

Pretty much the coolest store anywhere.

A fry's billboard

Seriously, it is.

Ipod nutcrackers

How strange

The hall of mirrors

I had to keep reminding him not to look under the changing room doors.

Lemon tree inspector

Everything looks good from here.

Drew and his tree

We've decorated this thing to the hilt.

Someone rent me

It's so empty in here, it echoes.

The big boy bed

Drew's new snoozer

Sniff...

It's no fun being sick, but at least it's only congestion, runny nose, and sneezing so far. I'm going to need more tissues though.

The hobby shop

We went to the Sac hobby shop, Drew's new favorite place in the world. Here he is looking at tractors, but we also spent considerable time with the trains, racecars, planes, and helicopters. Drew upgraded his age to 14 while we were there so he could play with the big toys.

The chrome pony

Literally.

San Francisco at night

The Hanjin

This is the boat that spilled all the fuel into the bay. It has a huge rip in its side, and runs down the side of the boat for quite a way.

A dark blur

It's all equipment for the show. Too bad you can't tell what it is from this photo.

The stage inside

Too bad my camera sucks. It's really cool in here.

Drew and grandma

Waiting for the doors to open so we can go in

French circus

Entering the tents

Santa insanity

Drew chose not to wait 30 minutes to be freaked out by a seasonally employed fat dude

Carseat pillows

In our top 10 greatest intentions of all time.

Future automall

All dead grass and rats right now. Maybe this will be an improvement.

Extreme nerdiness in this post

I just wanted to point out that this toslink cable advertises its 'gold plating'. If you think this is funny, you are as uncool as i am.

Inside frys

Drew is going to flip out when i take him here.

Roseville frys

Now this is how you do a theme store. They did a great job putting it all together.

I have kitty envy

Steve and Lisa got a maine coon. I'm very jealous. Maybe i'll talk amy into getting one some day.

Lazy dinner

In-n-out is one of the best parts of living in California

New book

The dr gave him some reading material

Stripping at the doctor's

He got 2 shots and handled it like a man

Mom's favorite chef

At your local grocer

Tangerines

Seeing double

Amy operates two computers at once from the comfort of the living room couch. I'll keep this handy for the next time i'm accused of crimes of nerdiness.

Ukelele hero

Rocking out

Lunch at Costco

Touching fuzzies

Shopping carts ride alone

This target has an escalater for shopping carts. Too cool!

Little chef

He's helping Yon Soon cook today.

Black Friday is for suckers

Today was my first try at a Black Friday experience. I woke up at 4.45 to head down to the Emeryville Best Buy (I assume this is where the Pixar guys get their tech supplies) to participate in the festivities. On arrival at 5.06, I was turned away at the parking lot, as it was already full, and had to park in a nearby parking lot. I watched a line of campers as they filed into the store as I walked up to the door.

As I approached the store, the outside of the building looked like an abandoned shanty town. It was littered with garbage, both solid and liquid, and it smelled horrible. When I was on my way in, I heard people mention that they'd been in line since 2am. My ambitions weren't to get the doorbuster deals, I only wanted to get a few items and be on my way. I wasn't prepared for what waited inside the store.

I grabbed a shopping cart and headed inside. What a madhouse. I'd never seen a store so crowded before. It took about 20 minutes to just get the few items I wanted, those that were still in stock, at least. Half of what I wanted was sold out by the time I'd even found it. And pushing my way through the crowds was a terrible experience. I clipped a few ankles with my cart, and my legs were bruised up from other crazy shoppers and their over agressive carts. Several people were pushing enormous boxes containing 42" TV's around the store, others had armloads full of discounted DVD's.

It took a while to find the checkout line, of which there were two, one for people that had "ticket" items (for those first in line that got a few of the rare doorbuster items) and a standard line for the rest of the dregs. I finally found the end of the normal line, marked by an employee holding a bundle of helium filled blue balloons. The line took about 15 minutes to navigate, which we were herded through cattle-style, and given ample opportunity to purchase marked-up DVD's and cables, which were certainly meant to offset the minor losses the store incurred by selling a few items at a loss.

I managed to get out of the store in about 50 minutes, which was a minor miracle compared to how long I was dreading waiting to check out. It wasn't yet 6am, and the sky was just starting to lighten. Since I'd missed out on a few items I wanted to get at the best buy, I checked the officemax next door, and was able to calmly walk through the store, and everything I wanted was in stock. What a relief. The line was only about 15 people long, a refreshing experience after the 100+ person line I went through at best buy.

I'd have to say the overall experience was horrible, and I don't want to do it again, nor would I recommend it to anyone else. Next year, I just want to do all my deal finding online, sleep in, and never remember the crowd battling experience I went through this morning.

Sorry there's no picture.

Climbing santa

I'm one of those types that can't stand seeing xmas stuff out before thanksgiving, but Drew thoroughly enjoys it. It wasn't easy ripping him away from this marvel of the holidays.

The rat book

Bedtime story