For those of you that didn’t see the pictures I posted 2 weeks ago, we put up our Christmas lights, we also got our tree decorated (pictures will be posted at the end of the month).  The past couple weeks we have been taking care of our Christmas shopping and also prepping the house for the first of what will be many Christmas parties our house will be the host of.  This Sunday is my dad’s side of the family’s Christmas party, we should have about 20-30 relatives in attendance.  And then on Christmas day we will have a party for my mom’s side of the family, which will be a bit smaller but will also include Kelly’s family (actually both parties will include Kelly’s family) and any friends that want to come over.  Work is winding down for the year as goals have been met and projects have been completed, I’m happy to say I still have a job that I enjoy although this year was a lot different from the previous two years due to the lack of new hires our department had to train.  Kelly’s business is doing well, although we did have a decrease in business compared to 2008, but we are in good standing.  All the animals are happy and healthy and we are all looking forward to the new year.  I’m proud of myself for keeping up with my Weekly Cool Links project, even though it’s not quite as ‘weekly’ as it claims to be, I hope someone out there finds some entertainment in me sharing what I find interesting.  Lastly my Eat in OC project has been doing great, I typically have around 5000 visits a month and I’ve made some major inroads with gaining new readers.  I’ve been linked to on a number of local websites, and high-profile local blogs, and in addition my articles are routinely linked to in the Orange County Register’s Community Blogs section which is only 5 links deep from their front page, how many others can say something like that?  I’ll probably post one more time before the year ends, but for now let’s move on to the rather large links section!

Food
Lifehacker had a great article on maximizing Thanksgiving leftovers that will also prove useful with Christmas leftovers.  While over at Slashfood they had 4 fast recipes for making great Tomato sauces.

Tiger Woods’ Women, er I mean Chicks
Some of these links may not be safe for work, or family friendly.  But this is my blog so if you don’t want to see possibly scantily clad women don’t look at the links in this section.  If you are related to me and offended, oh well, I’m sure you have something else you can be proud of me for, get over it… ;)
Twitter is a wonderful tool for communication and for people to share pictures with, some pictures are more interesting than others as you can see from this collection of Hot Chicks that use Twitter for the powers of good.  I do not approve or disapprove of their use of Twitter…  Maybe Twitter chicks aren’t your thing?  How about Chicks dressed in various NFL Team Jerseys?  What’s that?  You like farm girls?  How about German farm girls that model to help German agriculture?  Here you go.  Personally I like my girls a little different from the norm.  Lastly there is the Internet’s Girlfriend…  Funny how I’ve been on the internet for 15 years yet hadn’t heard of her till recently.  One suggestion for her site, more pictures like this and less like the one on the top of her website…

Sports
It got so bad at Notre Dame this year that after they fired Charlie Weis they went straight to the big man in the sky and offered him the head coaching job.  The Onion reports that Jesus Christ himself turned down a 3 year multimillion dollar offer to coach the Fightin’ Irish.  Maybe he was just holding out for the right job?  Such as this Head Coaching position with the Lingerie Football League!

Cool
Virgin Galactic has launched their official site for the space travel, complete with Spaceship Two pictures and information on the roll out.  Never would have thought space travel (even of this kind) would be available to the general public in my lifetime.  Lifehacker had a number of cool informative posts the past couple weeks, including Fixing Your Relatives Computer, Guide to Avoiding Online Scams, and the Most Popular Top 10s’ of 2009.

Funny
I read three comics online; Order of the Stick, Dilbert, and xkcd.  I’m particularly fond on one of the Dilbert comics from this week, because it’s how I feel at my job sometimes.
Another one from this week that really hits the mark is this one regarding the use of FAX machines.  As for xkcd I have to give some love to ‘Daylight Saving Time‘.  Looking for a last-minute gift for a friend or loved one?  How about, How to Date a White Woman or the Gangsta Rap Coloring Book?  All these and more really do exist!  If you are single and looking for a Russian Mail Order bride one of the companies involved has started to compare them to celebrities!  Now you too can date a girl that sort of looks like Jessica Beil!  Just make sure you ask them these 10 questions from Deadspin before you ask her to marry you, it will save you a lot of heartache.  And lastly, now that you got your celebrity look a like wife, it might be a good time to reflect upon those stupid things you did when you were young and might regret someday…

Videos
My website is currently sponsored by Bitch Slap The Movie!, in theaters: January 8th, 2010!

If you know anything about the movie, commercial, or TV show business you might find some humor in this.

I love reading Maximum PC and listing to their podcast, I love this video someone put together from Gordon’s rant of the week regarding the Apple Tablet.

And last but not least at all, the Space Shuttle is awesome and this high quality video of the STS-129 launch is worth spending 15 minutes to watch.

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights from mike interbartolo on Vimeo.

Oh and Merry Christmas!

First off with the start of the NCAA College Football Season I have to kick off my links with this awesome video.

USC opens their quest for the Division 1 championship on Saturday at 12:30 PM (pacific).  Talking about college football anyone that loves college football should really check out my friend Brian’s website, In the Bleachers, the #1 College Football blog and podcast in the world!

Food

Tactical Bacon, there for you when you need it!

I already know how to cook a whole chicken, but I’ve never cooked a whole one in a slow cooker, it’s a great way to get it done with minimal effort.  I’d also suggest checking out the main $5 dinner site, she does a great job sharing the wealth on the ways she’s able to make good cheap family diners.  Bacon is the coolest thing on the internet since sliced bread, and now you can make sure you are able to enjoy the salty smokey goodness of bacon during the next natural disaster with Tactical Bacon!  (thanks to my friend Dippy for the link).  And while you are eating your bacon, why don’t you learn how to cook up a bunch of hard boiled eggs in the oven… Wait are those oven cooked eggs?!

Interesting
According to Carnegie Mellon‘s Death Risk Rankings, the chances of a age 30-39, white, male, from California dying in the next year is 1,537 out of 1,000,000 (wait I fit that description!).  In addition here at the top 5 and the number out of 1,000,000.

Cause of Death – MicroMort
Total – 1,537
Accidents – 408
Circulatory system diseases – 187
Suicide – 173
Cancers – 143
Infectious and parasitic diseases – 141
Homicide – 101

Geeky Stuff

Time Travel!

I love this travel time-line that someone put together based on popular TV shows and movies (I’ve included to the left for those too lazy to visit the site.)  If you’ve ever wanted to check if your favorite user name is available at 130 websites all at one time, then namechk is the site to go.  Warning it could be used for both good and evil!  Good in the fact that you can find 130 websites to register your user name at, bad for the fact that you can find 130 websites to register someone elses user name at so they can’t!

Funny Stuff
Kelly and I are thinking about having a child…  Actually no we aren’t but what better way to bullshit your way out of work and responsibilities than the Office Kid, complete with pictures and drawings!  If having a fake kid isn’t your idea of funny then check out the People of Walmart a place to see pictures of those interesting individuals that shop the crappiest store on earth.

Tech Stuff
Just an FYI for those that keep sending me MMS messages to my iPhone, Sept. 25th is the big day that I will actually be able to see them from my phone!  About damn time AT&T!

And lastly I leave with you a couple more videos.

Pretty cool Old Spice commercial (I really enjoy their advertising and commercials)

College Humors modern take on West Side Story with Web Site Story!   I highly recommend checking it out!  You got to go to their site I can’t embed it.

So last night I went with a group to a new burger restaurant called Slater’s 50/50 in Anaheim Hills, you can read all about it on my restaurant review site Eat in OC.  Also I started another side project/website Bite Orange, still in the development process but I’m pretty much online and running.  Tonight I’m going to a friends bachelor party, going to see The Hangover at Cinema Fusion in Anaheim, they serve beer and have leather recliner seats, then it’s off to the strip joint for a little relaxation, Kelly told me to have a lap dance, I can’t let her down.  Saturday I have the TinoJam softball event and Sunday a wedding, then I’m on vacation for a week!  Not much happened the past 2 weeks, which is why I’m talking about the upcoming weekend instead, since I’ll probably forget to talk about it in two weeks anyway.  But now on to what everyone visits here for Erica Durance photos, er I mean my weekly (cough) cool links!

(Warning this weeks links are video heavy (5 videos to share so I’m going to do something a little different…)

Leading off it’s a video from The Daily Show about people that don’t know when to stop after they have been proven wrong.

Yes I have my mind made up, it’s much ado about nothing.  And Jon Stewart pretty much sums up my feelings at the end of the clip…

Music
Do you like online web games of adventure and quests and like music?  Check out this one called The Sixty One, check out new music and complete quests, to be the ultimate music geek.  Maybe games aren’t your style, how about 8-bit music renditions of Weezer songs?

Movies
I can’t wait to see the newest Star Wars movie!  Wait what?  Oh I mean the fan created 15 second clip Star Wars: Uncut edition.  Fans will recreate the entire Star Wars movie 15 seconds at a time, till it’s complete, all 472 clips have already been selected and 25 clips are already completed.  Or if you are a guy and looking to watch a chick flick you can check out this list of 20 Great Chick Flicks for Men (Including a movie with one of my favorite ladies, Anne Hathaway!) at the Orange County Register.

Talking about movies, I’m looking forward to these both!

Alice in Wonderland

Beer Wars

Food
If you are looking to cook food on the cheap, 5 Dollar Dinners should be able to help you stretch your paycheck when you have a family to feed.

TV
Even with ComicCon going on I don’t have much TV news this week, other then Burn Notice is awesome and Eureka rules!  But I do have this totally cool poster to share for the upcoming season of Chuck!  Let’s hope Chuck is able to bounce back and get more then just the 13 episode order that it’s signed up for, it’s one of the best shows on TV.

Buzz Aldrin thinks I’m cool, but not this guy.

Cool Stuff
I’m really impressed by these cool solar lights that Lifehacker hacked together from some cheap lights, I might just have to make some of those for the backyard.  Or there is the $14 steadycam for you movie directors out there.  Lastly I highly suggest checking out the most recent issue of Wired magazine for their article on The New Rules for Highly Evolved Humans, I particularly enjoyed this chart to determine what excuses to use when calling out sick.  Long live Keyboard cat and the Three Wolf Moon!

Play me off Keyboard Cat…

On Saturday we purchased our fridge, dishwasher, and range, and then on Sunday we purchased our washer and dryer.  We really like the bottom freeze design of the fridge and from my research fridges without the ice dispensers on the door are big pluses.  Not much to say about the dishwasher other then Consumer Reports had it highly rated.  We were a bit torn on which range to get, there was a really nice double oven that we wanted, with convection but couldn’t justify the price, so we went with this single oven that has convection and a warming tray.  Then the washer and dryer were pretty highly rated on Consumer Reports and we didn’t have a need for them to stack, not to mention the capacities are huge.

Also on Saturday I met with two electricians and went over the work I need done on teh wiring for the house.  We need to get our panel and riser moved because they are currently in the garage and it’s the original subpanel from 1949.  In addition to that we need a new switch put in the living room for the light (it’s currently in a closet???) and I need to get a dedicated breaker put in the room that is going to be the office that I have the computer in.  I then met to more electricians today, I think I’m set on who I want to use, but I’m still waiting for one more finalized quote.

Today we also had two roofing companies check out the roof.  They both felt the roof was in good shape except for 1 or 2 trouble spots that shingles have blow off of.  In addition one of the companies pointed out an issue with the flashing on our eaves that is allowing water to puddle up on the eaves.

Lastly we had a sales consultant from Home Depot talk to us about installing partial window replacements for 15 windows in the house.  The house currently has the original single pane, double hung, wood pane windows.  We want to get really nice double pane, double hung, vinyl windows installed throughout the house.  They gave us a quote, and we are working on getting two more from other companies.

So that’s where we stand, we are almost done!

I was included in the weekly food blog roundup for the OC Register’s Gluttonista Blog!  Pretty sweet to be recognized.  Recent reviews on my site include The Counter in Irvine and Beach Pit BBQ in Tustin.