Double Deuce
2003-12-29,

I have a few minutes here at work, so I thought it would be a good time to catch up and cover the holiday festivities thus far. We had a nice, long weekend that managed to not feel hectic or rushed for a change, which is an accomplishment considering the number of places to which our divorce-riddled families make us go. It's always a treat coordinating the holidays, having to see when we have the kids, find out when siblings are available and/or in town, etc. Makes for a fine challenge.

Anyway, on to the important topic: booty. (No, silly - as in 'loot'.) I got all the toys I wanted this year, including a complete set of Homestar Runner action figures, a Stinkoman 20XD6 (in 'Double Deuce' pose) t-shirt - I'm wearing it as we speak; it's 'dress down' day - and the Evil Dead video game for PS2. Yee hah. Also received: a most excellent 'Super Tinker' Swiss Army knife, complete w/ belt pouch; two excellent books - Lamb by Christopher Moore and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson; a healthy dose of cash (to the two of us). We also got a gift certificate for World Market from H's dad, with which we just bought a stylish new coffee table (clicking will show you a pic of the matching dining table-- just imagine it without the chairs and a little smaller).

Considering our severe lack of funds this year, I think we did pretty well. It helped that we spread out our spending over the last 6 months or so, as well. At least, that's when I started shopping. I picked up this fabulous Art Deco coffee percolator/urn that we'd seen in an antique shop. H really loved it but we couldn't justify the expenditure. So naturally I went back the next day and bought it. Finally, something with which I could genuinely surprise her. And I did.

Oh, and Santa got the two of us something that turned out to be better than I'd expected - DVD-Audio. Basically, it's music remastered to 5.1 DTS surround and printed on a DVD. I bought Sting's ...Nothing Like the Sun in this format and Oh My God does it sound fantastic, a totally different album, immersion into the music. For me it was like realizing the improvement in quality from cassette tape to CD. I may never buy another CD again. And, amazingly enough, H is in agreement with me. I'll turn her into an audiophile yet.

The problem with that concept is that DVD-A - not to mention DVDs in general - may be no the way out inside five years. We were at Office Max on Sunday buying a DVD±R when one of the resident geeks informed us that there's a new type of DVD coming that uses a 'blue' laser (as opposed to the current 'red' laser). Blue light uses a higher (narrower) frequency, therefore being able to pack more data in the same space. Like upwards of 23GB, as opposed to the 4GB or so that the current DVD holds. Of course, by the time they're affordable that amount of data might seem small. Or DVDs may become unnecessary. Who knows. What's important is that we can now record DVDs. Which means I have a lot of Digital8 tapes to go through. Ack.

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