The Seversons

Eric’s Kindle came today.  It is pretty much his present for the year, it includes birthday and Christmas, and he seems okay with that.  He has been waiting quite some time, so I’m sure he’s relieved that now he’ll never have to be parted from it again.

Here is Eric with his newest toy.  It came in a big box that looked like a book.  And inside was a smaller case that also looks like a book.  Here is a look at the Kindle up close:

You can guess what he’s been doing since it arrived.  That is, besides informing me that he would have to buy the upgrade pack.

Eric and I saw Cloverfield this weekend, a big monster/disaster movie. And afterwards I felt like we needed to have a talk. If a monster should ever attack Atlanta, we need some ground rules.

First, we both agree that I need to get out. I am not really the adventuresome type and I lack any monster-fighting skills. I’m not a fast runner, either. I am pretty much prime monster food. So the most important rule is that I must be taken to safety ASAP and that Eric must make sure this happens.

Second, if Eric wants to go back and be a hero to save someone, that’s his prerogative. But it had better be someone really important, not just some random person in trouble. And he cannot do any saving until he has complied with Rule #1.

Third, if for some reason I forget about Rules 1 and 2, should I ever say, “I’m going with you,” for whatever crazy thing someone intends to do in the middle of a monster attack, Eric must immediately respond, “No, you’re not,” and comply with Rule #1.

These rules will all continue to apply if the monster attack happens in a different city or while we are on vacation or any other such thing. So if you have been thinking you may need someone to save you in case of a monster attack, you may want to make sure you solidify your plans now. Because Eric has obligations.

Something Normal:

I have lots of friends with children, but Eric and I don’t have kids yet. The closest we’ve got are Eric’s electronics. We don’t have a stork, we have the mailman who regularly leaves us randomly sized boxes. I rarely know what they are and I usually don’t know that Eric’s ordered them. Often it’s some small cable or something. Yesterday we got another XBox. We have one already, but neither of these are used for games.

See, the thing about Eric is that he needs something to do. These projects usually involve our electronics. We used to have an incredibly complicated setup that was so bad that when I wanted to watch a DVD while Eric was out of town, I was at a loss at how to do so. (The DVD player, the device you’d expect, was being used for other purposes. I eventually had to watch it on the computer.) Recently we’ve scaled back enough that I can work things myself. The XBox is pretty much the extent of it, and we watch all our television and movies with it, and we save pictures and music there. The second XBox is to add another similar setup to the bedroom. Do we need this? No. But it was cheap and took up a few hours of Eric’s time, so I suppose it’s a victory.

Eric has admitted in the past that he upgrades our system so regularly that it often gets out of control. I’m wondering what he’ll move on to next, since we’ve got a great, simple system right now and everything pretty much runs itself.  At this point he can probably only overcomplicate things so hopefully he will move on to something else.  (To give you an idea, all that empty space above the XBox and other game stuff used to be full of stuff stacked on top.

And something unusual:

Yup, that’s right: snow.  In Atlanta. We may even get ice tonight, which could make for an interesting commute tomorrow.  I think it’s the first time we’ve had snow since I moved here more than two years ago.  You can’t tell from the picture, but they’re big, puffy flakes, too, not just wussy ones.

But I admit, I liked it better a couple days ago when it was nice and warm and snow-free.  Someday we may have snow as a daily occurrence… I think I can wait.

Welcome to our new blog. As often happens, Eric got a little bored and decided to do something so now we have our own domain. This main page will take over for our previous blog and we’ve pasted in a few previous entries.

Jessica keeps her own blog where she obsesses about books and movies that you can see here.

Eric also has a blog on running that you can see here.

Hopefully this will inspire us to pull out the camera a little bit more. Please update your bookmarks, since we probably won’t use the old site anymore.

I didn’t perform quite as well as I’d hoped. No pictures from the road. Though there is an exit off I-20 in Mississippi for (no joke) Chunky. Sadly, we did not stop at the thriving metropolis of Chunky, Mississippi. Maybe another day. Eric put the camera in a bag in the trunk and by the time I saw the Chunky sign it was too late to stop and get it out. During the drive, we listened to I Am Legend and enjoyed it quite a lot. We recommend it, though we think at times the audio version was a little too much. Stick to the actual book.

Once we reached Texas, we settled in for a few days of family, fun, and relaxation. We brought our Wii. And yet somehow we again got no pictures of Wii fun. Normally, we will sit around doing whatever for a lot of the holidays. But thanks to the Wii, we spent most of our time playing. I’d hoped that Eric and I would come in with an advantage since we’ve played the Wii about three times since we got it. Eric is still the champ at tennis. However, my bowling supremacy was slaughtered by the end of the break. Dad, Spencer, and Sarah all beat my score. Shameful. It seems the only thing left that I’m best at is hitting spares. I kill at spares. Andrea surprised us all by knocking out everyone in boxing. I was not present to document the boxing match between Mom and Dad and I think the world is worse off for it.

The cook-off was quite an event.
Here Eric grates cheese for my soon-to-be-cooked grougeres–aka cheese puffs. He did an excellent job, as evident by the bowl full of grated cheese.

Observe Sarah putting together her puff pastry full of apples, brie and general deliciousness. Andrea and Spencer contributed some interesting mini-paninis with pear, cheese, onion and sage.

All wonderful, but all rather heavy. We should have thought about it in advance instead of keeping it secret. Next year.

Another family tradition is the annual game of Nutsy on Christmas Eve or thereabouts. Tradition requires that I win said game. This year tradition held out and I miraculously pulled ahead to win. The dog does not like it when we play cards. Especially Nutsy, which is a vicious and fast game that requires a lot of movement. He would growl when we put cards down.

Here the dog stays close to Philip and tries his hand at cards. Eric did very well for his first time. He finished solidly in the middle of our pack of 8.

We ate quite well for Christmas dinner. But we also squeezed in some good Texas food. Breakfast tacos. Lunch at the Drafthouse with a movie. And lunch at Chuy’s with my old friends Allison and Ben. There exists somewhere a picture of all the food we ordered piled on the table. I am hoping Ben will send us a copy for posting so you can see it in all its glory. We also met up with my old high school friend Karl and his wife Amy with baby Reese. I, again, forgot the camera, and thus missed prime baby-picture opportunities. I am going to have to work on this blogging thing.

We had a rough drive home, Eric didn’t feel well, so we were glad to make it back in one piece. New Years Eve was a quiet one at home. But it was an exciting night for the family. Congratulations to Lee and Elycia on their engagement. Yet another wedding for the Severson clan on the way. We’re very happy for you two and excited to hear about your plans.