MichaelandChrissy.com

Halloween is a big holiday for us. Every year, we wait for the day after Halloween to buy discount halloween decorations to use next year. It’s always fun to open up the storage bins and see the new stuff that we bought a year ago.

This year, we have a new fog machine and several new metal lawn decorations (complete with flickering lights). The strobe light looks terribly cool when combined with the fog. The “scary rat” made another appearance this year to haunt Dylon.

The nephews came over to “Trick or Treat” again. Dylon was the Human Torch and Zach was a Power Ranger. They scored their own weight in candy (I had to carry Dylon’s bag since it was so full). Chrissy stayed behind to hand out candy and take pictures of Aiden. Lots of pictures of Aiden. We all had a good time.

Chrissy’s latest obsession is “30 Minute Meals” with Rachael Ray. She has TIVOed every show and watches them while feeding Aiden. Rachael Ray is sort of an anti-chef, in that she doesn’t wear a chef uniform, she doesn’t measure anything precisely and she cooks every-day food that anyone can enjoy. And she was in FHM magazine.

So anyway, Chrissy has made a 30-minute meal from Rachael Ray’s shows (and web site) every day this week. And they have all been good. Some of them have been really good, like the “French Dip with Italian Attitude” (shredded beef and cheese on french rolls with homemade garlic dip). And believe it or not, Chrissy has made each of them in 30 minutes or less, which is something that many of Rachael Ray’s critics can’t seem to do.

I got my God Neptune in the mail today, and I have to say that I’m not nearly as impressed as I thought that I would be. God Neptune is the Japanese Beast Wars repaint of the G1 Seacons combiner set, who merged to form Piranacon. The big difference is that there were six G1 Seacons, and each of the smaller members could transform into any limb as well as Piranacon’s main gun. God Neptune only has four smaller members, one for each limb (and no gun at all).

Each smaller Seacon member came with a stand, weapons, combiner parts and main gun parts, which is why a 100% complete Piranacon is both rare and expensive. God Neptune doesn’t come with any accessories at all except for his hands, feet and a sword. So, even though I really dig the colors on God Neptune, he just doesn’t seem to compare to Piranacon.

I’m still happy that I got him though, since I love combiner sets. I used to want all of them, and collected only combiners at one point. Aside from those very-hard-to-find Japanese Micromaster combiners (now available in reissue), God Neptune and Monstructor were the last two combiner sets that I didn’t have. Now I just need the very-hard-to-find Pretender Monster combiners, which were mostly rubber shells anyway.

Tim and I landed in Chicago at 3 PM today. International travel is a strange thing, since we left Heathrow Airport at 12:50 PM local time. The flight was eight hours, but there is a six hour time difference (sending you back in time), hence a perceived two hour difference in local time. The downside is that I have to keep myself awake until at least 9 PM tonight in order to sleep properly.

It was nice to get home to see my family. I didn’t make it back until about 6 PM, but Chrissy was very happy to see me. Aiden seems like he has grown quite a bit since I left, even though it was just four days ago. He’s such a big boy. I’ll have to bring them with me next time I go to the UK.

I lost sight of Tim for a minute in Picadilly Circus, and the huge crowds of people moving up and down Regent Street swallowed him up. Michigan Avenue has nothing on Regent Street — there were easily a million people out on the sidewalk. I searched for Tim for awhile, but eventually took the tour bus back to the hotel. He had already walked back to the hotel as well (and fortunately, enjoyed his walk), so we met up for dinner.

We decided to take the Tube back to Picadilly, and ate at a nice English restaurant there. I had “Toad in the Hole”, which consists of Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, and a curled-up sausage. It was pretty good, but filling. And two bottles of “London Pride” beer. Overall, it was a good day in London.

Tim and I took the train from Cambridge to London and ended up in King’s Cross. It was about a 45 minute trip, and then we walked to the Underground station and took the Tube to Bank Station, which is three blocks from our hotel in the financial district.

We spent the entirety of Saturday wheeling around London on a tour bus, the kind with no roof (so you sit up there and listen to a narrative over the headset while you snap pictures). You can get off the tour bus whenever you want, and they have pickup stops all over the city where you can get back on.

Tim and I stopped at the London Eye (that big damn ferris wheel on the Thames river), Buckingham Palace (I keep wanting to say “Fountain”, but that’s in Chicago…), Harrod’s Department Store, and Picadilly Circus (for some knickknack shopping). I took a bunch of pictures, and that’s how I ended up losing Tim.

Our business trip to Cambridge, UK, was a success. The technology transfer group at Cambridge University was so impressed with our web portal that they asked if we could set them up with one of their own. As an added bonus, I was volunteered to do the heavy lifting. They were nice enough to fly us out here and take care of us, so it’s the least that I can do.

Cambridge is sort of dark and scary. The buildings here are 800 years old, and there’s not much in the way of street lighting. Speaking of streets, they are very narrow. We walked down a street last night that was just wide enough to ride a horse through (which may have counted as a street 200 years ago, but not so much now).

However, the atmosphere is very nice. The Garden House has newly renovated accomodations, and a traditional English Breakfast. Everybody is very friendly, and there seems to be a pub everywhere you look. Not a seedy biker bar, but an actual pub. Tim and I ate dinner last night in an “American restaurant”. They serve bbq ribs and fajitas. No joke.

Tonight I have a flight from O’Hare at 9:28 PM to Heathrow Airport in England. The idea is to sleep on the eight hour flight, and then wake up magically at 11:15 AM tomorrow in a different country. There is a five or six hour time difference, so you’re losing almost as much time as you spent flying.

Chrissy made enough money from her eBay postings to buy a new camera. She did a lot of research and decided on the Canon S3 IS. This is one really nice camera. At first I was opposed to buying a new camera, but the Kodak konked out on me while I was trying to take an especially cute picture of Aiden, so my resolve was swayed.

Chrissy is already posting her exclusive Botcon 2006 figure sets on eBay. The Megatron/Waspinator set cost us $100 at the convention, and she sold it on “Buy It Now” for $315. The Laserbeak/Buzzsaw set (supposed to be the original cassettes, but reformatted like Agent Ravage) cost us $50, but she put out an offer for $125. There are no takers yet, but she might relist it without a reserve price since it’s a pain to bid on reserved items. It looks like she’ll make enough to get that new camera that she wants (ours was put to shame at Botcon). Once those auctions are done, she’ll put the boxed set out there.