The most evil toy ever...

My friend Braden received a set of radio controlled tanks for Christmas this year. The tanks are equipped with infrared, similar to a TV remote control. When one player aims their tank at the other, they can "shoot" the other tank, thus getting a hit. In six hits, the player wins the game.

There is a twist, however.

When a player gets a hit, the player receiving the hit gets the heck shocked out of them by the control device in their hands. I am not kidding--a real, live electric shock is delivered through the metal plating on the tank remote and there's no way to control your tank without touching the metal. A handstrap is provided so you don't drop the controller; or, in Justin's case, the handstrap is provided so you don't throw the controller halfway across the apartment.

Besides the shock, the game is not very family friendly. Expletives and competitive behavior abounds.

I don't know about you, but I used to hear sunday school lessons about showing good character when you think no one is watching. Heck, even Santa Claus can see when we're doing good deeds or not (but why would he be watching me while I sleep...that's a little creepy), thus (supposedly) regulating our behavior for the year, hopefully for good.

I recieved another lesson in "doing good, because you never know" today in an indirect way. At work, two of our company's major investors showed up unannounced and proceeded to take a tour of the office. All at once, I realized three things:

1) I was wearing my Lucky Brand sweatshirt with the creepy skull and crossbones.
2) There was hemp lip balm sitting on my desk in plain view.
3) My coworker's CD, "The Sickness" by Disturbed, was sitting on my desk, with a cover image of what can only be explained as some old bald dude poking his head out of the shaved pouch of a decaying kangaroo. (I've been meaning to listen to their version of the 80's tune, "Shout," but the cover image scares me, so I keep putting it off.)

I made up for all of this with a firm handshake and warm eye contact and, like in those deoderant commercials, I didn't let them see me sweat.

These mashed potatos are so creamy...

...and, now, so is my homemade hummus, thanks to my parents and Justin.

I fired up the new candy apple red Kitchen Aid mini-food processor last night, seeing how it would do with a can of chick peas and sesame tahini. After having two blenders die, one of them in an actual electrical smoke cloud (and possibly short-lived flames), I was very surprised to see the Kitchen Aid plow through my ingredients as if I had put jello in the food processor's canister.

Trying to be a good kid, I toted the hummus, along with some veggies, to work as my lunch. I'm back on the South Beach/somewhat low-carb kick, and already my breathing is a bit better.

I'm trying to think of something good to test my blender with...hmm...any ideas?

So that was Christmas...

All the blogs I've read this morning are filled with terse, hurried prose. This one will be no different.

Christmas Eve was spent with my parents. Justin and I brought Katie the dog and everyone at my parents' party was so gracious about it. We got to hang with the Welch family, my cousin Jose, various aunts and uncles, along with a missionary family that is indirectly related to us (it just wouldn't be Christmas, however, if we didn't see them!).

I showed off my new toy, from Justin, the Robosapian. I feel kinda bad every time I fire it up, because I know some 10 year old had to get the "It's too expensive" or "You can't have everything you want" speech when Christmas morning arrived and I had their Robosapian...I'm like the cool uncle who always gets the RC Car for Christmas when you didn't...sheesh! Liberal guilt!

Either way, I wasn't expecting anything in particular this year and, yet, my family and friends showered me with amazing loot. A blender! A food processor! And lest I sound like "The Price is Right", my good friend Megan gave me one of her paintings, one that I thought I had missed out on, but dearly loved.

Justin and I got to cap off the holiday weekend with my parents driving over to his parents' house in Ocala to stay over a night. It was wonderful to have both families together and even though the whole weekend was ultra-low-key, we had the best time relaxing and eating horribly sweet things.

Okay, okay, so this ended up a little less terse and hurried than I wanted. But now I have to actually work, so here's a recap of this morning to fill your terse quota:

Got up. Got a shower. Drove to work.