Ben Benner’s Blog

I hope that everyone is having a Merry X-mas.

I helped the dogs, rabbits and bird make X-mas cards for Gina. The dogs got her a Starbucks gift card and the rabbits and bird got her an iTunes card. Lula wanted to get Gina a new car, but well Lula is a dog and in these tight economic times she just couldn’t get a loan. I mean, one of these days soon Lula’s modeling career will take off and she will be able to get herself the personal chef she has always been wanting.

Gina got me some clothes (which was cool, cuz I picked them out), she also got me CronoTrigger for the DS-Lite, and she got me a really swanky beard trimmer (my last one broke). Gina and I got t-shirts from my in-laws, Gina’s says that “Everyone loves an Italian girl.” Mine says “Italian, by marriage only.”

I also got a micro-copter (which is proving to be challenge to fly, but one I am sure I will master). Gina got a bracelet.

I got Gina an Apple AirportExpress, so that when she travels she will always be able to have wifi at the hotel. I also got her the latest book by the lady that writes the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling, I believe the title is “The Tales of the Beetle Bard”. It is a small book, I think she will likely finish it in a day (if she reads it straight through).

We were going to see “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” with Jeremy and Nichole. However, it would appear that the movie was TOO popular. For almost evey X-mas for the last 10-15 years I have seen a movie. But both Gina and myself cannot ever remember the theatre being as busy as the Cinemark on 1431 was this afternoon. Jeremy and Nichole got there earlier than us and managed to get tickets, whereas Gina and I didn’t get there in time. I called Jeremy when we got there, to see if they were already in the theatre or if they were in one of the various lines that were outside the theatre (one of which looked like it might have been coming from inside the building.

He said that they were inside already and that it was pretty full. I stood in line to buy tickets and overheard someone say with amazement “It is sold out.” I didn’t catch what movie they were referring to, when I got up to the kiosk myself, I saw the “Sold Out” label on the picture of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

I feel  bad that we were not able to catch the flick with Jeremy and Nichole. Hopefully, it is a good one. Tomorrow night Jeremy and I are going to see “The Spirit”, I am going to see if John can go tomorrow night. I think I will make sure we are there extra early, which should be easy since Jeremy and I are both taking the day off.

On a side note, it actually turned out to be a good thing that Gina and I didn’t get into the movie. Our “Rival 20 Quart (Electric) Roaster Oven” is amazing, it cooked the turkey to our amazement in about 1.5 hours. I mean it seems impossible to believe, but we reviewed various different websites to verify the necessary cooking time and temperatures (and to see if we could figure out the best place to put the meat temp probe).

The movie lasts almost 3 hours. This would have ultimately have meant that the turkey would have been way overdone.

Gina’s dad had told her earlier today that the roaster would could the turkey quickly, but he didn’t say it was going to cook it that quickly. I mean we had put the probe in about 1 hour in and it was already registering at 161 degrees.

Well, Gina just started cutting the turkey, so it is time to go.

Laterz

I took the photos a while ago, but haven’t really had a chance to put together a post.

(One of my gifts has been taking up a lot of my ‘free’ time.)

I’ll let you guys figure out which one.

Last year my mother-in-law, Brenda got me a cookie basket (mmmm… cookies). This year, to be a bit more healthy I got a fruit basket (with a balloon). The basket was mostly melon, which I will have to admit I am not a huge fan of. I have on occasion eaten a few pieces of musk melon, but not a fan. So I let Gina eat the melon, she LOVES it. I really enjoyed the grapes, strawberries, apples (dipped in cholocate) and the pineapple stars.

Thanks MOM(-in-law)!!!

Our good friend John Hale got me a 4th Gen Nano, in light of the fact that Steve Jobs stole my last one.

Thank You John!!!

This brings us to what the wife got me for my birthday.

The first thing I will mention is that she got me a Neti pot. Which I actually used, after weeks of it sitting in my bathroom, in the box. I NEEDED it when I was sick to help remove the pressure from the sinuses that were giving me a serious headache.

The next thing she got me was pretty much the only thing left on my list.

The Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 gun. It is a fully automatic, belt fed NERF machine gun.

Because of the fact that while shooting the dogs might be fun (namely the evil little black and white one), the fun would be short lived as the darts would probably mean costly trips to the emergency vet, the gun is staying at the office.

The gun is a bit louder than I originally was expecting. I didn’t think it would be silent, but not quite as loud as it is. However, the speed at which it can burn through the full 25 dart belt is quite impressive. But the noise makes it like a after 5pm toy. (unlike the revolvers which are more of a ‘not on the phone right now’ kind of toy)

I also bought myself a couple of gifts, Civilization Revolution (for the Xbox360 and the Nintendo DS-Lite).

The folks at Firaxis did a great job of optomizing the play control of the game for both the Xbox360 and DS-Lite. As a long time Civ player, I really enjoy the fast paced action of the game. They made certain parts of the game simpler, in a good way. Except one.

They only give you one Nuke. For whatever reason, as Jeremy can (and does) comment on, I seem to like games with Nukes. In part, because I actually use them. In Rise of Nations, I can be found to use them to help level the playing field. In Civ3 and Civ4, there were a few times I found myself at a relative stalemate (cold war if you will) and had enough cities with high production, to be able to build enough of a nuke stockpile to be able to hit every city of my computer opponent, in a single turn.

The one thing I will say about the nuke in CivRevolution, is that rather than simply eliminate the enemy units (and reduce the population of a city) as it does in the other Civ games, the Nuke in CivRevolution completely removes the city in question off the map, nothing but a smoking crater.

Well, I need to pack it in and get to bed.

Laterz