My friend Derek and his wife Michelle and their son Nicholas have returned from South Dakota for a holiday visit. We went to the Asia Grille tonight for some Chinese food and some Karaoke. Derek sang quite a few songs and in between his sets I snapped this photo for the December Challenge. I didn’t take my DSLR with me and was kicking myself for not doing so. One of Derek’s friends, Cathy was there with her D200 and her 17-55 lens and SB800 Flash. Needless to say I had major camera envy. She lurks here on occasion and I encourage her to share her photos on Flickr or Zooomr because they are really well done.

Michelle and the DJ

The Group.

Eva got to spend the night with Memere and Grandfather, she was very good for them. She is out cold now. They must have worn her out.

I got to play with the Wii Zapper finally. It is pretty fun, Allison is playing it right now and she enjoyed it as well. We’re both working on getting through the levels, the zapper takes some getting used to and I think it should be a little longer with a stock that you can brace on your shoulder to steady it. However I am getting used to it. I hope more games come out that are compatible with it as it is fun. I tonight liked the first person shooter ones that much but I may rent one to try it out sometime.

I posted 80 photos from Christmas to a Flickr Gallery, check them out.

Eva was all smiles after her trip to visit her Great-Grandparents and Uncle Nate and Aunt Sarah today. She had a very big and busy day and she should be sleeping now, however she is crying a bit right now and needs to do a little calming down.

It was back to the office today. Not a hugely busy day at work and the roads were pretty clear as well. I hit Target at lunchtime and that was a mistake, I should have done that around 8:00am before the crowds. All Christmas stuff was knocked to 50% off. So for the rest of the week the deals will get better and better. So if you are looking to score a bunch of stuff for next Christmas take a look at the department stores like Target and Wal-Mart for some great post-Christmas deals.

I posted at FuelMyBlog today about three tips for a Tech Tuesday on Wednesday and then I reposted it on Flatwater Tech as well.

Also this ice sculpture survived the past two days outside and looked pretty cool.