Recall

No not that kind of recall though being from WI I am sure anyone reading this thinks we are going to try and recall someone else from office.  I am talking about am manufacturer's recall on my car.  In October we received a notice that Kris's car was having a recall to replace some air-bag sensor in the front passenger side seat.  I brought it in and they replaced whatever sensor needed replacing, but then when the Hyundai techs went to update the car's software, it wouldn't update properly. 

I had brought the car in on a Saturday so they told me that they tried calling the technical support people at Hyundai USA, but since it was a Saturday, no one was there to help.  They told me they thought they were going to need to replace something in the seat itself and they would call to set up a time to replace it once the part came in.

Well the part came in and I made the appointment for a Saturday since Kris needs her car pretty much every day to take Alison to and from school since we live one tenth of a mile too close to school (by my measurements we're beyond the 1 mile limit, but the bus company disagrees, however that is another story entirely).  So I brought the car in last week, and after an hour and a half, they told me that there was again a problem, and again being a Saturday, no one was at the tech support desk to help them out.  The manager told me that he thinks he knows what the problem is (a bent tab when trying to assemble the seat) but since the seat is about $3700 to have it replaced and before doing that he wanted to make sure that was the problem, which will require me taking the Santa Fe in on a weekday when they can call someone for assistance if needed.  So tomorrow I am taking it in and hopefully they will get things taken care of.  Luckily they have a shuttle service so I can drop the car off and then have someone drive me back to work so I don't have to waste 4 hours at the dealer waiting to find out what is wrong this time.

Vein Surgery Update

It has been three weeks now since Kris had her surgery the veins in her left leg and everything is going along fine.  The first few days were tough.  She had a lot of pain.  I don't really remember the pain from the first time when she had the right leg done, I just remember trying to get the incisions to stop bleeding. 

There were actually a couple of spots that were very red, and inflamed and I was worried there was an infection going on, but on her follow up a few days afterward, the doctor said everything looked fine.  As it looks right now, everything seems to be progressing fine, so Kris should be ready to run 5Ks in the summer.

Midnight Mass

This year, I decided to do something out of the ordinary.  Our church actually had Christmas mass at midnight instead of at 10:00 PM on Christmas Eve.  I haven't been to actual midnight mass AT midnight since I was in junior high.  Even when I was an altar boy, we switched and had it earlier so people weren't staying up so late.  But I think that defeats the purpose of midnight mass.

We tried going to a vigil mass about 10 years ago when Sarah was little and we had to get there almost two hours before mass began in order to get a seat in church (though that was before the church remodeling to make it larger).  Sarah was a monster and wouldn't sit still so we never went back.  I wasn't sure what to expect as far as a crowd so I made sure to get there early, a little more than an hour.  When I got there, there were only about 15 people in the church.  Mental note for next year...  no need to get there so early.  In fact, there were plenty of seats in the church at the time mass started (which was actually at 12:10 AM).  The big "rush" of people got there about 11:40 PM so I was really early.  It was nice though sitting in the dimmed church with the Christmas lights and nativity scene being the main lights with the music playing.  It was really very relaxing.  I almost fell asleep.

I remember things being a little different though from my time as an altar boy.  I don't know if the way St. Anthony does things is just specific to the parish or if it's a whole, church wide thing.  But I would like to see some of the traditions we had when I was a kid brought back, lighting the Advent Wreath before mass, bring the baby Jesus in and placing him in the manger at midnight mass, maybe a little more ceremonial things.  But for now this will have to do.

The Christmas Pickle

A few years ago after doing some genealogy I decided I wanted to look for some family traditions that i could start with the girls.  I was looking for something specific from Pomerania, since that is where the Hahn family comes from.  Well I couldn't find anything specific, but I did find something that was supposed to be a German tradition, the Christmas pickle.  So we bought a glass pickle to hang on the tree.  It is always the very last ornament placed on the tree and is hidden deep in the boughs and the legend has it that the one who finds it on Christmas morning was supposed to receive a special gift, and the first adult to find it was supposed to receive good luck for the upcoming year.  While we never gave out a gift to the girls because we didn't want them fighting over it, I thought it was a cool tradition because they could look at and appreciate ll the ornaments on the tree while looking for the pickle.  Alison even used it as her family tradition in a project at school.

However, after reading some things about it online, I have come to find out that it is a total myth.  If you went to Germany at Christmas time and asked about hanging a pickle on the Christmas tree, they would have no idea what you were talking about.  It does appear to have some German roots though, just not in the old country.  The story goes that there was a German immigrant from Bavaria who was fighting in the Civil War by the name of John Lower.  He had been captured and sent to the Confederate prison in Andersonville, Georgia.  Anyone who knows anything about the civil war knows the name Andersonville.  It was a terrible place to be sent and nearly 1/3 of the Union soldiers who were held there died.  In poor health, and starving, John Lower begged a guard for just one pickle before he died.  The guard had mercy on him and found a pickle for John Lower.  According to the legend, that pickle (along with the grace of God) gave John Lower the strength to live on.  Finally, once he had been released (or liberated) and reunited with his family he began the tradition of hiding a pickle in the branches of the Christmas tree and the one who found it on Christmas morning would be blessed with good fortune for the year.

Whatever the story, it is something the girls like to do, and they do look for the pickle, and admire all the other ornaments.  So I am glad that we decided to pick that custom.  I'd still like to find some other traditions we can do with them before they get too old, but for now at least we have the pickle.

What's a Cassette

A couple of weeks ago we were driving somewhere, maybe Kohls, maybe Walmart, I forget exactly.  But were were driving in my car and had the satellite radio on.  I was flipping stations and landed on the hair band channel.  I don't remember exactly what was on but it was a song that I hadn't heard in years.  I know it was something that Kris liked too.  I said something about how I remembered having the album by whoever it was on cassette back when I was in high school.  Alison was sitting in the backseat and asked, "What's a cassette?"  My mouth dropped open, and I said, "What? Are you kidding?"  I thought for certain she was putting us on, but she was serious.  Apparently she had never seen a cassette tape before.  That was how I knew I was officially old

Cookie Time!

Yes, it is that time of the year again, or practically.  We got Ali's stuff for selling girl scout cookies again.  This year the sale starts right after the first of the year, and last for only two weeks.  Also this year the council as doing their sale a little differently.  Some genius did a study apparently, that the girls can sell more cookies with boxes in hand, so that when they drop them off they are supposed to have extras on hand and then let the customers know they have extras.  I am not liking this new method.  This is the last year of Alison's troop as they are reportedly disbanding the troop after bridging so I think we might tone things down this year.  If you got cookies from Ali last year, let us know if you want them again, let us know.  We aren't going to go hard pushing them.

I Really Don't Hate Christmas

Last weekend I had to run to WalMart to get Kris's dad a new trimmer.  It was just one thing, in and out.  Well that was a mistake.  The parking lot was jammed, and people were driving like complete jag-offs.  There is nothing that hacks me off more than someone "parking" in the middle of the aisle waiting for someone to pull out of a parking spot so they can save the extra 30 feet they might otherwise need to walk.  Then again, if you have ever seen the clientele that frequents WalMart you know they aren't exactly into health and working out. 

Once I got in I went right to the aisle where the trimmers were, picked the one that I think will work the best for Kris's dad (about 2 minutes to look and compare models) and then had to wait in line for 15 minutes to pay for it.  15 minutes in the 10 items and less checkout.  That is another thing that gets me hot.  It is one thing if there are no people waiting, or no other lanes open, but on this day, WalMart was PACKED!  So there were a couple of people who had like 30 things, and had split it up into three transactions, so they paid three separate times and yet the line didn't move.  UGH!

So as I was leaving I was thoroughly disgusted with shopping and with the whole Christmas season.  The rudeness of the people in the stores (other consumers, not the store employees; the employees I saw were more than accommodating trying to do their jobs and keep everyone happy).  I think there is just something about the season that seems to bring out the worst in people. 

So in closing I want to just want to say that I really don't hate Christmas.  And to prove it, here is Dr. Doofenschmirtz singing the new Christmas classic: