Jason Hancock

Christmas was fun this year. I bought Laura a necklace that she really wanted from Tiffany’s. I received a vivitar 285HV strobe flash, a light stand, an umbrella, an umbrella bracket, Call of Duty: World at War for PS3, The Dark Knight on blue ray, a case for my numerous memory cards (I have 3 now that I regularly use and am considering a fourth), a couple t-shirts, some PJ’s, the classic board game Battleship, Band of Brothers on blue ray, an da few more things I’m probably forgetting.

This cartoon pretty much sums up my life experiences lately.

We survived another Thanksgiving. The trip to Sacramento wasn’t bad. We arrived a hair over 5.5 hours after we left. The trip back took almost 9 hours due to traffic and fog. It’s officially time to prep for christmas. For us, that meant packing up the fall decorations, getting the Christmas ones out, and getting a Christmas tree. We got a nice douglas fir for $42. It’s the perfect size for our place.

It’s almost a disservice to coffee to add cream and sugar to bean water brewed in a french press. I’m no coffee gourmet by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy a good cup of coffee. It’s 11:35 PM and I have to work late tonight, so I broke out my french press. It’s not a fancy press, but one made of lexan. I originally bought it for camping because I found that I had trouble brewing with a regular coleman percolator.

This is the good stuff! I usually make one batch a year at Christmas. Ingredients: 2 sticks of butter 1 lb of peanut butter (get the 18oz. jar and use it all except a heaping tablespoon)  3 Tbs. Milk 1 Tsp. Vanilla 1.5 Lbs of powdered sugar (I use about 2⁄3 of a 2Lb. bag) 1 bag of milk chocolate chips Melt the peanut butter, butter, milk, and vanilla in the microwave (2 minutes is usually sufficient).

We got back about a week ago from a 5 day trip to Walt Disney World. I was pretty impressed. You get of the airplane and get on a Disney bus. You don’t step foot off Disney property until you’re back in the airport going home. The whole experience was cool. I was really amazed at how well-oiled of a machine it was. You can find the pictures with the rest of my galleries (over 700 pictures).

The lens for my camera showed up yesterday. It’s an AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. This is the first lens with image stabilization that I’ve ever used. It’s also the first lens with auto-focus with manual override that I’ve ever used. I can’t wait to take it out and play with it. Everyone I’ve talked to with the same lens absolutely loves it. I’m really looking forward to our trip to Orlando.

We had a good time in Vegas over the weekend. Laura, her mother, and friends Jenny and Carrie went to the New Kids’ concert Saturday night. While they went to the show, Laura’s dad, Jenny’s boyfriend Eric, and I went to Discount Firearms to shoot some fully automatic weapons. The place was pretty busy when we got there. We decided that we would each shoot the MP5, the Tommy gun, and the M16 (it was an M4 with a 16” barrel and a collapsable buttstock).

If you have ever questioned how much of a g33k I really am, I am about to put all doubts to rest. I’ve started playing Dungeons and Dragons. Yup. All these years and I’ve missed out on a classic RPG. I don’t know why I’ve never played DnD before. There were kids playing it when I was growing up. Maybe the stigma surrounding it then was too much for me. I don’t really know.

My neck has been sore for the last 1.5 weeks. It was probably caused by sleeping a couple nights on the couch (I don’t like waking Laura up by coming to bed when I have to work until the early morning hours). Combine that with poor posture at work and I have a recipe for disaster. It seems like it’s getting a little better each day, but maybe that’s the ibprofin talking.