If you're the parent of a girl tween, you know Hannah Montana is the biggest thing around, even bigger than Britney's younger sister (at least for the next 5 months and no, we haven't broached the subject with eleven year old yet). She's on a concert tour, which is selling out in minutes, and she was here on Sunday. The paper had an article about the insanity of it, some woman from the DC area spent $1800 on four tickets up here, to take her five year old daughter. Eleven year old wanted to go, but didn't get through ticketmaster, and I refused to pay scalper prices. Porsche_girl wanted to go to, but got shut out of ticketmaster. On the advice of her cousin, Porsche_girl called early in the morning on Sunday, and got 4 close seats, and was able to go. I did tell eleven year old that if the snow came down in the upper end of the predicted amount (2 feet), we'd hike to the arena and pick up cheap tickets from scalpers trying to recoup their losses.

We got a lot of snow on Sunday ( which sadly didn't help the Bills against the Browns, but not enough to shut down the city, maybe 8 inches. The kids did get a snow day on Monday out of the deal, ironically I took Monday off so Mrs. Ha and I could spend some time together, alone. We made the most of the snowfall, building a topless igloo (the roof is a toughie, I think we've underestimated those Inuits) in our front yard, going sledding at the reservoir, and taking it easy. I shoveled at least three times too, who needs to go to the gym when you can workout like that. It's been four years since I last ranted about sledding etiquette, my rants have not really been heeded. There were many people walking up the hard packed sled run, it's understandable for a six year old, not for a teenager.

Saturday was the monthly gaming meet, and I was able to go for four hours. I didn't get in any hex and counter wargaming, but I did get to play Antike, a civilization building game that takes place in Europe or the near and middle east, depending on how the board is flipped. We played in the near and middle east, I had the Greeks, and I was against the Persians, Phoenicians and Egyptians. It was a lot of fun, I don't think I'll get it though, when will I get enough people to play against? The Persians eeked out a victory in the end.

While I was gaming, newspaper_girl came over, and she and eleven year old and six year old played with elfyourself. You can see the efforts with our happy family.

Mrs. Ha is going through a rough time. At first we hoped it was her
thyroid, but the blood work shows her levels are normal. Part of it may be due to her med change, she had elevated prolactin levels, so she switched anti-psychotic, which has caused some sleep problems, which is usually bad as it keeps me up, too. Other parts of it are lack of daylight, her mom, and her job. Things are going to be rocky for a while longer.

We went to our school's winter potluck dinner Tuesday, it was nice but crazy. The girls had a real fun time hanging with their friends, we talked a little with other parents, but it was rushed and frantic.

And now, media reviews.

We watched Crumb this weekend. For some odd reason, while I like lots about the 60's, I've never gotten into Comix. Sure, I can recognize the famous ones, but I could never tell you much about Mr. Natural, the Freak Brothers, or any of them. It ended up being an entertaining biopic, but more for seeing Crumb's crazy family, Robert seems to the most together, misogynistic warts and all. Maybe I'll get American Splendor for more comix fun.

In Dolphins at Daybreak, Jack and Annie end up on a coral reef, go for a ride in a leaking broken submarine, and meet some friendly dolphins. As you might expect, they get back to Frog Creek safely.

Let's get a little more manly and talk about cars and electricity and small engines. The ladies can skip until the next paragraph, where we talk about shopping.

In car news, my electrically heated seat cover is only working intermittently. I'm not looking forward to a winter without it. Our snowthrower isn't starting either, I'm not looking forward to a snowy winter without it. In a triumvirate of problems, the new ballast in our kitchen light is not working either, I'm not looking forward to a dark winter without it.

We're nearly done with our Christmas shopping, tonight may be the last big trip we need. We're going to drop the kids off at my parents to get some time shopping, and alone. Due to the snow, we didn't get our Sunday time together.

Tomorrow looks to be a light day too, with knocking off early for a team building event before everyone goes their own way, except for the few of us working the days after Christmas.