Webthoughts

Last night my wife and I stayed home and handed out candy to trick-or-treaters that stopped by. This is the first Halloween since we moved into our house in 2002 that we've been home. It turned out to be an interesting experience seeing the different costumes. We kept a list of the different costumes that stopped by.

• Football Player (4)
• Cheerleader (4)
• Tourist (4)
• Darth Vader (3)
• Ninjas (3)
• Batman (2)
• Princess (2)
• Witch (2)
• Power Ranger (2)
• Dorothy (2)
• Belly Dancer (2)
• Cow
• Horse
• Demon
• Tinkerbell
• Soldier
• Diva
• Indiana Jones
• Cat in the Hat
• Bear
• Two-Headed Man
• Uncle Sam
• Matador
• Hospital Patient
• 50's Girl (Poodle Skirt)
• Minnie Mouse
• Medic
• Egyptian Queen
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle
• Spider-Man

I was not surprised at seeing so many football players and cheerleaders. Those have always seemed to be staples of Halloween costumes (from what I remember when trick-or-treating myself). Darth Vader wasn't much of a surprise either.

Some of the costumes were really quite creative. According to my wife (she handed out most of the candy), one of the Darth Vader costumes was quite realistic including the flashing lights on the chest of the costume.

The hospital patient costume was a girl wrapped in bandages around he head and arm and using crutches. I really didn't know what else to call the costume. The tourist costumes all showed up at once. They were a group of kids going around as "senior-citizen tourists" with canes, cameras and a wise-cracking attitude. The two-headed man was actually twins dressed up in one shirt. It looked a lot neater that it sounds.

Most of the kids were really polite and thanked us for the candy. Many of them were quite quick to tell us what their costume was. We saw kids ranging in age from 6th or 7th grade down to about 3-years old.

It was a fun night and we were pleasantly surprised by the number of kids we saw, considering this is the first year we've given out candy. In fact, we did run out of candy.

We went through the first snowstorm of the season today. The snow started about 3 a.m. this morning and didn't let up until about 4 p.m. this afternoon. All in all, the Omaha area received about 4" total in the area today, but only 1.5-2" actually stuck on the ground.

I've always enjoyed the first real snowfall of the year. It's when you get in to February and March and it's still cold and snowing that it gets really old. Right now, though, it's exciting to me when it snows.

In about half-an-hour, my wife and I will be out the door to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Qwest Center Arena in Omaha. I'm really looking forward to this concert.

I've been a big fan of their work since I first heard them around 2001 or so. They do an excellent job of mixing the classic Christmas carols with a modern rock twist. This will be my first time seeing them in person.

I'll try to remember to post how the concert was when we're back.

Okay... You people who are paying two-to-three times the retail price of an XBOX 360 really need to think about what you're doing. Seriously.

Think about this. You are paying $1,200 for something you can get for retail value in a month or two. In fact, my guess is that after the initial craze dies down, the price of the system will drop by at least $100 by next summer.

Is it really worth it? Is it really that important? Will your previous XBOX/PS2/GameCube really not cut it until then? Will games for those other systems simply disappear?

More evidence of the stupification of our society... *sigh*

UPDATE: It's just a video game people!

I got back too late Sunday night to post about the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert and ended up working very long days Monday and Tuesday, so the report waits until Wednesday...

What an incredible experience! These folks know how to put on a show. The light-show, while not the most whiz-bang light show I've ever seen, did greatly impress me and the music was as good, if not better in some cases, than that on the albums.

I had wondered how this concert would be presented. There are four albums of material to choose from and most of the albums are really more concept albums--meant to be played together and in order--than collections of separate songs. How they did it actually worked fairly well.

The first half of the concert was an abridged version of Christmas Eve and Other Stories. I say abridged because most of the choral pieces were not performed (such as "A Star to Follow"). I assume these pieces weren't performed because there wasn't actually a choir. This wasn't really a problem however. The album was performed as a single entity. The "narration" was expanded with a spoken (not sung) narrator going more in depth than on the album itself. Crowd-pleasers were "O Come All Ye Faithful/O Holy Night", "A Mad Russian's Christmas", "This Christmas Day" and, of course, "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24".

After a very brief intermission including introductions of the band members and touring group, the concert became a little more muddled. They jumped right back into things playing assorted pieces from the other albums and promised a few pieces from a forthcoming album whose title I didn't catch. This part of the concert didn't flow as well and some attempts at humor were a little awkward (including one of the band members showing up on stage in a cow costume). There were a few awkward pieces performed as well, such as a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll".

But the last third of the concert made up for the weak middle section. It started out with a "play-off" between the band's two keyboardists (both of whom are absolutely incredible)--each trying to play more difficult pieces that the one before. This was actually very entertaining and humorous and included things like a Trans-Siberian Orchestra rendition of "Linus and Lucy".

What I found incredible though was a new piece that I can only assume will be on this forthcoming album. "Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi" from Carmina Burana done in the style of TSO. Oh. Wow. Shivers kept rolling up and down during that one. Other crowd-pleasers were "Requiem" from Beethoven's Last Night and "Christmas Canon Rock" from The Lost Christmas Eve.

The Grand Finale really was just that: Grand. It consisted of a medley of various pieces all done in great TSO style, lights, fireworks, musicians wandering amongst the audience playing they instruments, and culminating in a reprise of "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" that was perhaps more powerful than the original.

Again, TSO really knows how to put on a show. They make a stop in Omaha every year for the last several years and I will definitely be back to see them again next year.

Although it's the end of the day, I would still like to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

My day was spent with my wife and family at my parents' house. Good food, football and fun were had by all. A very relaxing day that was very much needed.

I put up Christmas lights today. The picture below is the result.

I've always loved putting up Christmas lights. I've done it, or helped out every Christmas for as long as I can remember. When I finally got my own house, I honestly could not wait for Christmas, just to put up Christmas lights.

One thing I don't like doing is getting up on that roof (especially at the highest point) and getting near the edge to attach the lights to the roof-line. I've never like heights and I never will. But, it's a small price to pay, I suppose.

One year, I would love to completely deck out the house. Every line, corner and angle having lights. But, before that can happen, some electrical work needs to be done to the house. The only outlet I have to use for these lights is on the deck off the back of the house. I have to run a heavy-duty extension cord up and over the roof to get lights on the front side. What I would like to do eventually is have an outlet installed somewhere up on the roof just for the Christmas lights. Not this year though.

At any rate, I'm pleased with the results. I plan on putting a few more lights in the new flower-garden out front (you can't really see it in the picture above, but I'll post a picture when I get that done). Other than that, I'm done with lights for the year.

So, its November 27th and Omaha is in the middle of a thunderstorm and several counties just west of here are under tornado watches. Oh, and this is after I woke up this morning finding out that we would be under a winter storm watch later this evening. Yes, it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

Welcome to Nebraska!

So, it's November 30th and Omaha is in the middle of a moderate snowfall. Hmmmm...more like the season.

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I had my camera set to the wrong setting and didn't realize it until too late. The exposure was too long. This is also evidenced by the fact that the snow flakes don't look like flakes, but like streaks instead.

But, the picture does show the blue-lights I used to line the now-hidden flower bed in my front yard (as promised).

I went for a walk this evening in the snow. The wind isn't blowing, the flakes are coming down in copious amounts and its really quiet out there right now. It was very peaceful and relaxing. I really enjoyed it.

Now, in another month when I'm dealing with a foot of snow on the ground, sub-zero temperatures and howling winds, I'll probably be saying something else.