Elmo is a lowdown cheater

So we have been playing a great deal of "Chutes & Ladders" around the ol' homestead. Riley has the Sesame Street edition of the game, and 3 out of 5 times he will insist that he uses the Elmo marker. (No surprise) The problem is that Elmo is a cheater in every possible way. We're talking, the fake spin, the double-space tap, the space skip, and (my favorite) the insistence that elmo, "does not have to go down that slide." When Mom or Dad are playing with Riley we don't let him cheat at all, but Riley likes to play the game by himself, and that is when Elmo will win by a MILE! It's not so strange when I think about how Elmo is the first Sesame Street Muppet that never, ever seems to learn anything! I think Santa is going to have to bring us "Trouble", at least you can't fake the pop-o-matic ball.



In other news we had an OK time at the car show yesterday. It was a quick visit due to the Riley factor. He could have spent more time at the show, but there is only so much time that you can watch a kid ride a rotating platform with a 2007 Acura TL. I got to check out the new Volvos and Porsches, and some other stuff too. I got to talk with the owner of a 1963 Corrvette with factory fuel injection! It was great to see the HUGE crowd around the Tesla Roadster! They may just prove that if you build an electric car that is functional and fun, the world will beat a path to your door. I plan on hitting-up Marc for a road test sometime, and I'll be sure to write about it.

Autumn In The Golden State

Greetings all and salutations. We hope that you all had a fine day of thanks, and didn't spend too much time shopping on "black Friday." It's Autumn in Northern California now, or as close to Autumn as it ever gets. (See the tree across the street? Foliage) Thursday was a beautiful day and we spent some time at the playground before Thanksgiving dinner. Riley had a great time throwing a nerf ball up the spiral-slide and letting it roll back to him. Jen and Christine and myself chased Riley and generally ran around the joint.


It was a fantastic Thanksgiving at the Howden house, with three pies and four people. Riley wanted nothing to do with the Turkey, but that's alright. I think he had rolls and a clementine, more for us! Yesterday we broke out the Christmas decorations and Riley had a blast hanging ornaments on the tree.


Jen is doing alright with the new baby! For those of you who have not heard it is a boy, so we are trying to think of some names. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to let us know! The year has just flown by and we are all a little shocked that it is almost December. Santa might be bringing Riley his first two-wheeler this Christmas, assuming that Riley is a good boy and stays off that naughty list. It was a rough October for the most part, I am blaming the whole sordid thing on Mercury being in retrograde. One $1200 car repair bill and a washed cell phone later, we are happy that the little planet started moving forward again on the 17th!

Oh yeah, we got Tivo last month! I can't remember why she said it, but Jen said the words I have been waiting to hear for the past 5 years, "Maybe we should get Tivo." Without any further discussion we had a Tivo box the very next day! We can watch prime time TV again! (Due to the fact that we all seem to go to bed at around 9pm around here, it has been difficult to follow shows like Lost and 30 Rock without the thing.) Skipping commercials is clutch! It freaks me out a little that I own a thing that watches TV for me; Douglas Adams said this was going to happen.

Today we are headed to the San Francisco Auto show to check out the Tesla electric sports car; It is made by our friend Marc's company. More on that later.

Show us what's behind door number 1

With the new baby on the way we needed to get a second car again. So last weekend we went down to Capitola and picked up an '05 Pontiac Vibe. It's a nice little runabout and Jen likes the color. I like the fact that it is a Toyota.

Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me some good feedback to read.

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