It's snowing. Finally.

On the second-to-last day of the year, we're getting our first real snowfall of the season. Up until now it's been unusually warm and terribly dry. I remember moving to Colorado in 1995 and seeing six inches of snow on the last day of summer. Although that's unusual, we've certainly come to expect a bit of the white stuff in October and later.

The mountains have been getting tons of snow-- which is good for the ski areas and the water table in spring thaw-- but the plains have been bone-dry. Apparently the average snowfall for Denver by this time of year is 25 inches. We've collected just over 1 inch to date, and that was in several sporadic snowfalls that only dusted the ground.

Hopefully today's snow breaks the spell and we can look forward to a nice white winter now.

I just received a statement from my business insurance company. It starts with this gem:Looking over the policy, there have been absolutely no changes to the "amount of insurance", which I assume means the coverage I have and the money I can recoup in the event of a catastrophe. So what they must have meant-- silly me!-- was they were only increasing the cost of my policy.

By 21%.

Nice. It's hard to know which to dislike more: banks or insurance companies.

A small group of scientists has reported that they've successfully tested a substance (Tl4PbBa2MgCu8O13+) which is superconductive at zero degrees celsius. Since most superconductors only work when they're cooled to hundreds of degrees below zero, this is a game-changer. Once we can create superconductors that work at room temperature, it's a world-changer.

The awesome march of science and technology continues.

A very Schroeder Christmas, 2010...

It all starts with a Santa hat. In this case, a hat that Kyra made for the pet rats.



Unfortunately the little critters weren't terribly excited to prance around in a hat. Oh well.

This morning's gifts were (not surprisingly) a big hit.









It all culminated with the Biggest Gift of All:



The box was seriously big enough to hold Zack. Amazon shipped a four-foot-long Nerf sword in it... go figure.

After opening presents we played some games, had cinnamon rolls (liberally frosted, of course), and decided to have a Mario Kart tournament. Check out the concentration on the face of one particular driver:



The final race was between me and Kyra. It was intense.



Oh yeah baby. I continue to be the reigning Mario Kart champ of the house.

We just finished a nice Christmas dinner of ham and potatoes, and we're going to sit down and watch a movie or something. Good times.

Merry Christmas, all.

True, dat.

The Zing team took the afternoon off to see Tron: Legacy this afternoon.

It was way cool. After disappointing overhyped sequels in the past few years-- like The Phantom Menace and Indiana Jones 4-- I was a little worried that we'd be oversold and underwhelmed by this reboot of the series.

The film was entertaining, visually amazing, and actually had a plot. And who can argue with Olivia Wilde as the butt-kicking black-leather glow-in-the-dark parallel of Trinity?

Hilarious. A single image that annoys fans of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Star Wars all at the same time!

Sixty degrees, sunny, light breeze. Time for some ultimate.

Today I picked up lunch at a local hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop, and I was told by the manager that I can't have bare feet in the restaurant. (This was as I was paying and heading out to leave.)

The place has a concrete floor, so I'm not sure what the concern is. I asked her why bare feet weren't allowed and she shrugged and said, "Health code."

As I was driving back to the office, I started wondering what in the world the health code would have to do with bare feet. Let's say I have a fierce case of athlete's foot... maybe I'll leave icky fungus on the floor or something, but it's not like the food is down there. If they drop a piece of ham for my sandwich on the floor, I would fully expect them to toss it and get a new piece from the counter. And if there's some kind of hazard on the floor-- like broken glass-- then I might cut my foot but that has nothing to do with the Health Department.

I think it's all a movement against those of us who enjoy life in bare feet.

Since Google is one of my clients, I occasionally check their online invoice-tracking system to find the status of the invoices I've submitted to them. Tonight I'm doing some accounting work, and I went to login to their site and saw this page:



Uhh.

So Google's financial department invoice system has a quota... on Google's own servers? That seems painfully ironic.

Zack put together a Christmas list. It's pretty awesome.