Winter Tires

Finally got some new winter tires and steel rims for the Prelude. Let me tell you, summer tires + snow = wheeeeee! But there is a difference between "This is fun" and "I'm going to kill myself". Tough time to get winter tires though... Michelin has had some sort of strike recently so finding Michelin X-Ice tires (my first choice) was impossible in the short-term. After some looking around, I finally found a place that sold Bridgestone Blizzaks and could install them quickly.

Bridgestone Blizzaks



I don't think I've ever driven on pure winter tires before (always all-seasons). These tires are awesome! The grip I have is crazy. No more fun power-slides for me. :-(

Welcome to Ugly Christmas Lights.com!

How can you not like a website called Ugly Christmas Lights.com?

Check it out - some really funny/crazy pics...

Dilbert on Video Compression

Good old Dilbert. For those of you who don't understand video compression (and therefore don't know what I do these days), here is the "Marketing" explanation:

Dilbert - Video Compression

Seems so simple, doesn't it?

Christmas Tree

Last weekend we picked up our Christmas tree. For the first time we decided to try a "cut your own tree" place called "Benjamin's Tree Farm". Well, the good news was that it was not too cold, and it wasn't snowing. The bad news was that it was wet & muddy, and we had to walk about 15 minutes to get to a place where there were decent trees. The hard part was dragging it back.... UGH! They gave us a plastic barrel cut in half with a rope attached to use as a sled. Ya, right. The thing was next to useless. By the time we got back to the cash, I was exhausted, Sarah was crying, and Leah's arm was about to fall off from carrying Abby. It did save us quite a bit of money though, and we got a pretty big tree. We'll see if we do the same thing next year. Leah says we will laugh about this sometime soon. I'm still waiting... ;-)

Sarah ready to go find a Christmas tree (notice the purse)



Finished cutting down our Christmas tree



Decorating the tree (anyone want to guess how many balls Sarah broke?)

Apple Launches ITunes Music Store in Canada (now with more updates!)

Cool! Might have to spend a few bucks sometime soon on some tunes...

Yahoo! News - Apple Launches ITunes Music Store in Canada

UPDATE - bought my first song from iTunes Canada today... Great way to get indivual songs you like without spending the $$ for the whole album... Now I'll have to try moving the purchased track over to my home PC and burning a CD. Muahahaha...

UPDATE #2 - So after purchasing my first song, I emailed it to my home PC and was able to 'authorize' that PC to play the song (you can authorize up to 5 pc's to play the song). I haven't seen the purchase yet on my visa bill, but it looks like the $0.99 included tax... At only $9.99 for a complete album (regardless of if it has > 10 tracks) and the ability to burn a CD using iTunes, I may never buy another CD again... A - cheaper. B - never need to worry about losing the CD since you have the "originals" to burn it again. Now if they ever make an iPod integrated car dock/stereo...

I can see how buying songs can easily become addictive when it is so easy (and you don't notice the charges right away). For a cheaper solution, there is AllOfMP3, but I am too chicken to give my Visa number to some russian website.