December was full of good times and bad.

"The Bad" involved stressful work over weekends, a shower that's falling apart, and a trip to West Texas that was cut short due to an allergic reaction that left me with swollen eyes. At work, the deadlines placed on the release of software were uncomfortably close to the holidays. There were new requirements that were added very close to the release date. I worked two weekends to make sure everything was done. The combination of the three made things a might stressful. Our master bathroom shower tiles started having cracks in the grout. To repair them, I started chipping away the old grout and ended up pulling a dozen or so tiles off the wall. The tiles were placed directly onto the dry wall without treatment which led to the deterioration of the dry wall in some places. Alexis and I are currently weighing our options of what to do, repair or remodel. For the holidays, we drove to Odessa and then to Lubbock. In Odessa, I came in contact with something that I am allergic to. My eyelids swelled up, but my eyeballs were fine. No redness, just swollen, puffy, uncomfortable eyelids and eye sockets. The drive to Lubbock was fine, but it didn't improve my condition. It wasn't until I went to the doctor back home that I improved. My theory is that I was allergic to Eucalyptus at my Dad's house and the allergens stuck to my pillow where it followed me to Lubbock. Alexis has washed my pillow about three times now.

"The Good" in December actually out numbers the bad. Alexis and I had our eight year anniversary, the trip to West Texas was fun, and gifts were exchanged. Alexis and I have been married for eight years and to celebrate we bought a 42 inch HD TV. The eight years have gone by so very fast. Our trip to Odessa and Lubbock was fun despite my allergic reaction. I enjoyed visiting family and eating great food. One day that I wasn't all puffy and had a lot of fun was with my two brothers. My brothers, Alexis, and I had an awesome time at Fast Eddie's in Odessa. Fast Eddie's is a pool hall that didn't exist while I lived in Odessa. If it had, my best friend, Kevin and I would have visited it on a regular basis. After eating lunch at Rosa's, we all played pool and darts into the evening. In all we spent about six hours there. Gift exchange this year was rewarding. I bought Alexis a portable photo light box for taking pictures with consistent lighting and low shadows. She has started using it to take pictures of the shrinky dinks she makes and may eventually sell. I also bought her a Nintendo DS game that she played a demo of a month ago, called Soul Bubbles. She bought me a XBox 360 game called Dead Rising, two books I heard about on NPR, and a Firefly graphic novel that prompted us to have a Firefly marathon after we both read it.

Despite "The Bad" in December it ended on a good note and I resolve to never let a month go by again when I don't update my blog. Although she hasn't said it aloud, I believe Alexis has resolved the same for her website. Happy New Year!

Plastic Army Man Halloween Costume

Awesome Predator Pumpkin

Skull Pumpkin

"Losing an Eye" Pumpkin

25 Best Video Game Pumpkins

700 Covers For Obama From Around The World

C-C-Combo Breaker

What the 2008 Electorial Map would look like if decided by 18-29 year olds

A very unique way to say congratulations to Barack

Obama & kid fist bump

Bacon v. Fries

Spring Lamb

OM NOM NOM

Huge Butterfly

My Favorite Toy!!!

Stuck Goat

Cerberus as a pup

What Does $5 Billion In Pure Gold Look Like?

Today is a very important day. You may look back on this day and wish you had voted if you haven't already. So go out and vote if you can.

History is being made.

Alexis and I voted on Wednesday. I was looking forward to voting as I haven't in the past.

My pick for President was easy, but the other elected positions took more time. There's a ton of press coverage about the presidential election, but not for the other positions. After discussing the information Alexis had collected and doing my own online digging, I felt informed enough to vote for US Senator, US Representative, Railroad Commissioner, and County Commissioner.

We went to the polling place shortly after noon and found that there was a line. It took us about seven minutes to get into a room I considered too small. About eight or nine touch screen machines lined the far wall with only one or two occupied. There were no signs or individuals to direct you to which table you needed to go to once you reached the end of the line. The person in front of me went to a table and I was waiting for him to get what he needed to vote when someone spoke up, raised his hand, and said "Next". I gave him my voter registration card and he called out a number to the lady standing behind him. The lady placed a thick credit card shaped card into a machine, used a touch screen to scroll down a huge list, then ejected the card. I took the card and went to a voting machine behind me and voted. Afterward it wasn't clear what I needed to do. I stood there for a few seconds, by which time Alexis was done, then managed to get a lady's attention and gave her my card. I made my way out, but Alexis stopped and grabbed a "My Vote Counted" sticker. Later she had me take a picture of her with it. Despite the somewhat disorganized voting location, I am proud that I took the time to be an informed voter. Now I'm just looking forward to November 4th so the elections will be over. The negative campaigning and shenanigans irritates me.

On a lighter note, I think the following video of a 5th grader, named Damon Weaver, covering a speech given by Joe Biden extremely awesome.