The World of Scott Mindeaux

Why are Christmas Trees So Hard To Find?

Or the subtitle should be: Am I too picky that I had to go to four tree lots before I found a tree? That’s right, it took four tree lots. In fact I went back to one tree lot three times! Yes, three times. I would eventually find my tree in the garden center of my local Target. The bullseye saves me again. You see, I was in charge of locating the Company Holiday Tree for the lobby.

What is it with the trees this year? The prices have come down for sure, but almost 80% of them have bare spots the size of Montana or are suffering from lack of water or they don’t know which way to lean. It was hard finding a tree. There were three trees to choose from: Noble, Douglas and Grand. Most of the weekend I was looking at the Grand trees due to their great pricing. A 7-8 foot tree for about $50.00. Problem was that these trees had long needles and sprigs for branches. They also suffered from lean-itis.

I was determined to find a tree before the weekend was up. However, so was the rest of Southern California. This is the magic weekend for Christmas trees. At one lot, they were down to about 6 trees. It was sad. Another lot had maybe a dozen and those were the saddest looking trees I had ever seen. Another lot in Irvine at the intersection of Walnut and Jeffrey had tons of trees, problem was they were like 15′-20′ tall! I’m serious! I’m not sure whose home those trees would fit in, but they were tall indeed.

So discouraged, I went to the Target across the street from my house. There was only one guy really working the tree lot and he looked beat and broken. Poor kid.  All the trees that were left were all still bundled and tied up. I looked at a few of the trees that other customers have un-bound and now understand why they were just laying on the floor. Those trees sucked. So I picked upa bound tree, cut the string (the guy was busy) and gave the tree a really good shake. Then I had to shake it some more. I looked at it, and gave it yet another shake.

This was the tree! It was late and I had tree sap all over my hand and who knew what those needles could hurt. Luckily I had borrowed my sister’s SUV and it fit in the back of the SUV. I wasn’t looking forward to having to lace it up on the top of the Expedition. The tree we ended up with was a Noble Fir and it is about 7.5′ tall.

Whew!

Ugh. Sick on Christmas

Well the sore throat started on Sunday. I didn’t think much of it. Just a tinge of scratchiness.  I was also feeling very tired. I rested most of the weekend.  Yesterday, Christmas Eve, I got out of the house to enjoy some of the nice weather.  Blue skies, upper 60s/lower 70s. I was out at Ralphs purchasing stuff for Christmas lunch at my parents house. I had already picked up a Honeybaked Ham and we also needed turkey for my dad. I didn’t want to purchase a whole Turkey, so I went with Whole Turkey Breasts.  Of course, they were brined the evening before in my usual brining solution and it was so moist!!! This time I cooked the breasts downward, then turned them over in the last 30 minutes of cooking to get some browning.

It was good to see my dad and mom and all the kids.  It was a very informal lunch with all the traditional fixings.  I didn’t eat much. I wasn’t feel well still.  The scratchiness has turned into a ball and I was really really sleepy. I left right after lunch (3ish), came home and have been in bed ever since. I woke up to being fully congested and hot.  I can’t find my thermometer, so not sure if I’m running a temp.

I missed Scott Shumaker’s call as well as Tim from work.  I got up around 10:30 this evening and txt’d Tim. He is on his was to a small vacation down in Mexico with Damien. As for me, I had some leftovers and trying to stay warm as I’m now freezing.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Back to bed for me.

While You’re Young…Have Fun

A former employer of mine has started a marketing campaign for the company, which is an unusual move, but considering this year’s events of lead and other toxic materials making their way into their toys, Mattel felt it necessary to start this campaign. When I first saw it, it grabbed me in. Images of parents and their children playing with some of the toys I grew up with and the joys a toy can bring to a child.

Mattel has always been a company of integrity to me. I was with them for 2.5 years and it was a proud time for me. Congratulations on to Mattel for re-affirming what many of us know. I’m still with you Mattel and so are my nephews and nieces.

Here is the 1 minute version of the commercial.

My Black Friday

I didn’t buy a thing.

Nada.

I was in bed most of the day and not feeling well. My knee was also acting up from all the running around yesterday, so I decided to stay down today.

I went to the hospital this evening and helped feed my dad some jello. My mom left for home earlier and my dad’s food try was still full. It didn’t look very good though. After feeding dad some food, I headed back home. I stopped off at Target thinking I would still find some of those hard drives that were on sale for $89…all gone.

Gonna get some rest. Hope you had a good Black Friday.

A Merry Little Christmas …

Off to Vegas again to spend Christmas with the family. We left Saturday morning and got into town around 1oam. Not too bad, considering we left at 6:30. I thought there would be traffic, but it was smooth. We stopped off at my sister Lyn’s place. The kids just got up. For christmas I got Lyn’s kids computers. I gave my nephew Damian my old Mac Mini and had to buy him an LCD widescreen to go with it, so that was one gift. The second one got an old G4 and I have him my old 19″ LCD and my niece Sade got an iMac. In addition, I wired up the house for internet. Their hose has buildt in wiring so it was a breeze. I moved the wireless and cable modem to the network niche and hooked it all up. For my other sister Beth and her kids, I got Dallas a MacBook bag and a snap on red cover for his MacBook. Its kinda kewl and is red see thru plastic, intended to keep the MacBook scratch free. For ToniLyn, I got her a giftcard at Target. She wanted a Build a Bear, but I knew that her Nana (Dee, my brother-in-law’s mom) would proabbaly take care of that.

I rented a timeshare in Vegas to avoid the pet nightmare at both of my sisters. It was a small studio timeshare at a resort called Tahiti Express (the youger brother to the much larger Tahiti Village Resort). They put me next to the stairwell and all I could hear all night long is the thunder of footsteps. Ugh.

On Christmas Eve, we chilled out for breakfast then did some last minute shopping. My mom, sister and I went to Office Depot. My mom bought Jason and Sade new desks for their computers.

Donna, Alan and Iman (relatives on John’s side) were over. I haven’t seen Donna in like 10 years it seems! We had a simple dinner of chicken, pork tenderloin and turkey breast. Nothing fancy, but filling. We decided to open presents early this Eve so that Donna dn Alan could get underway on their drive back to Cali. We opened gifts at 10pm. The kids got all kinds of stuff. Lots of clothes, new Razrs for the boys and Sade got Guitar Hero II for their Playstation II. I’ve never heard of this game, but I gave it a try several times and got hooked. Now, if I only owned a console. My sisters both got me cash to help with the down payment on the apartment. Every dollar counts these days!

Overall it was a good Christmas. I snuck away back to the “Tahiti” and thought about all my friends. This Christmas was heavy into using tech to reach out. I got several SMS text messages on my phone wishing me a Merry Christmas! I sent out a few emails and MySpace comments.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.

Now…I hope I have someone to spend New Year’s Eve with…

My new phone

Merry Christmas Scott!

My mini-Christmas present to myself arrived today. I’m now the proud owner of a new Sprint Treo 650. After months of debating Treo or Blackberry…I decided to go with the Treo. I’ve always been a Palm fan. With all the weird news lately surrounding RIM and the lawsuits and such, I used that as a factor in my decision.

Now…if I can only get Sprint provisioning to fix the PCS Vision on my phone so I can get to the net.

Sprint customer service…ahhhh, you gotta luv em.